USDA Food Pyramid Gone: A History Of Food Guides

First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on Thursday that the nearly twenty-year-old food pyramid would be replaced by a new icon: the food plate.

But did you know that the USDA has been making nutrition recommendations for more than 100 years?

Check out the slideshow below to see how the food guides have changed over the years.

What do you think of the USDA's new food guide? Let us know in the comments below.

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1916: "Food For Young Children"

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The USDA's first food guide, "Food For Young Children" by nutritionist Caroline Hunt, classified food into five groups: cereals, vegetables and fruits, milk and meat, fats and fatty foods and sugars and sugary foods.

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The USDA's first food guide, "Food For Young Children" by nutritionist Caroline Hunt, classified food into five groups: cereals, vegetables and fruits, milk and meat, fats and fatty foods and sugars and sugary foods.

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Comments

[HerrMonk]

11:51 AM on 06/28/2011

The FDA should not be in the business of making dietary/nutrition recommendations.

They have a track record of creating fat/obesity and encouraging unhealthy eating habits: the newest version of the scheme continues trend.

[bigc1114]

03:53 PM on 06/09/2011

Humans need fats, especially men. Testosterone is made from dietary fat and when there is none you run into trouble. I've tried the high carb low fat way of eating and my libido dropped and I had less motivation in life in general. Even wonder why male vegetarians often look and act wimpy? They have very little testosterone production! So men, go out and eat a steak but skip the bread. The women will thank you.

[DrP]

09:27 PM on 06/08/2011

The 1940's food wheel was much closer to an appropriate diet for the majority of people than more recent graphics. The real disaster was the food pyramid. The 1940's version recommended one serving of grains a day, which is reasonable. The Ancel Keyes campaign and the faulty lipid hypothesis lead to the the pyramid travesty with its 7 to 11 servings of grains recommendation that has given us an epidemic of conditions connected to over-consumption of carbohydrates by the 75% of the population with some degree of insulin-resistance, including obesity and chronic high blood sugar/insulin levels.
And yet, in spite of the clear science implicating high-carb, low-fat diets in these tragic epidemics, the FDA rolls out another misguided attempt to get people to eat more carbs and less fat. Sad, and again, tragic for the victims of this misinformation.
A great new book to counteract this disaster, recommended for everyone, especially health professionals:
The Art and Science of Low-Carbohydrate Living by Phinney and Volek

[kamamama]

08:54 PM on 06/10/2011

I would definitely take out white flour ! it's really about portion control,too

[HerrMonk]

11:52 AM on 06/28/2011

Take out all flour.

[bridge to somewhere]

05:20 PM on 06/06/2011

If they had just made it look like an iPhone App icon back in the 50's instead of waiting 60 years, there would have been no problem understanding it and we'd all be healthy eaters now!

[nnealj1]

08:14 AM on 06/05/2011

Read that article about the 7 teenagers eating over 300 pancakes at an all-you-can-eat breakfast special, the other day, and the thought of anyone consuming that much starchy food in that short a span of time almost was enough to make me gag. The article figured that it was about 7000 calories apiece that those kids consumed. Nice to be young, to be able to get away with such a thing, but it's certainly not an advisable stunt to be promoting for the young, in this day and age of childhood obesity....

[nnealj1]

08:09 AM on 06/05/2011

"foods", not foos...should really edit before clicking the posting button....

[nnealj1]

08:08 AM on 06/05/2011

Not a vegetarian here, but eat like one, lots of times. At that age where keeping pounds off is most important, so lots of salads and veggies and fruits seem to work more easily than anything else. I find that if I eat plenty of those foos, I can ingest most of the other stuff from time to time, without the problem of weight gain. Whenever I go too heavy into the starches or protein, I do find that I become more lethargic, so it's a no-brainer for me to stick with what works. Eating largely vegetarian makes me feel younger, better, healthier...the problem being that it's a style of eating that doesn't lend itself too well to coupon-shoppers. Very rarely are coupons offered for the kinds of food I eat, as coupons seem to be for all the overly processed foods that seem to be so popular, these days. Name-brand cereals, for the most part, are still too expensive with coupons, so, the grocery bill is a little higher, eating this way, but the end result seems to be better health. Can't say that following a food pyramid would necessarily ever work for me...moderation seems to be the key to proper nutrition.

[lopsidedly]

06:29 AM on 06/05/2011

yep my favorite foods... water and salt

[Big Jap]

05:30 AM on 06/05/2011

I thought Pyramid Schemes were illegal so why is the govt. telling us whtat to eat in the form of a pyramid?

[Chuck Pope]

12:55 AM on 06/05/2011

That's just another reason we should do away with the USDA. They are one of the most useless departments of the government. They do nothing to insure our safety and have no power to close down plants that are pumping out contaminated food. So either they need to get back to what they were designed to do and take back their authority or just close up shop and save the tax payers money. If a food plate chart is the best they can do for us now then we'd be better off saving the tax money. Watch the video " Food Inc." and you will see what I am talking about, they are run by lobbyist paid for by the food manufactures and chemical companies. So although we all thought they were supposed to be looking out for us they are in bed with the violators. This is why we are having food laced with e-coli and pumped with chemicals at the same time grocery prices are going through the roof and no one seems to care.

[HerrMonk]

11:54 AM on 06/28/2011

If you got rid of the FDA people would lose jobs... and we all know government's first responsibility is to it's employees, as it exists to create jobs.

[bpowell39]

04:18 PM on 06/03/2011

I always found it easiest to remember the four basic food groups with the recommended serving numbers - 2, 2, 4, 4 for adults. 2 meat, 2 dairy, 4 fruit/vegetable, and 4 bread I lost a pound a day while still eating healthy following that plan and the principal of eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and supper like a pauper. Most of my caloric intake was at breakfast, with just a fruit or vegetable left to eat for supper.

[William Anderson LMHC]

02:14 PM on 06/03/2011

Finally, some common sense in the USDA nutrition recommendations. Good work, Michelle!

William Anderson, LMHC
Author of 'The Anderson Method - Secrets of Permanent Weight Loss'
www.TheAndersonMethod.com

[chamberwindow]

01:29 PM on 06/03/2011

The best one is the 1917 pamphlet "How to select foods." Back then we gave children whole milk, as "skim milk should never be substituted for whole milk as the principal food in a childs diet." Now we give children low fat chocolate milk loaded with sugar.

[lneslusan]

07:17 AM on 06/05/2011

you are so right. Sugar in soda, milk added to just about everything. I honestly think sugar is the problem not fat!

[DrP]

09:29 PM on 06/08/2011

The science supports your thinking.

[HerrMonk]

11:56 AM on 06/28/2011

Yes: sugar is the problem, not fat.

Carbohydrates are WAY over-consumed, and fat is WAY under-consumed in this country.

It's always interesting to hear people give examples of bad fatty foods, when nine times out of ten they end up naming a food with fat more calories from carbs than fat.

[Sharon Wright Bower]

11:21 AM on 06/03/2011

Does anyone else remember those cheesy "4 4 3 2" comics/songs/public service announcements from the early- to mid-70's? Just me? Ok...

[terramartom]

09:41 AM on 06/03/2011

From the beginning this was a chart about how to sell products to consumers and less about health.
Factory farm Dairy is the worst farm food product, meats are second.
It is basically poisoned!
Eat fresh, organic fruit, vegetables, rices, grains, legumes and you will be just fine, and healthy.

[klbrz]

12:28 PM on 06/03/2011

Actually, I tried the vegetarian thing for a while and I feel much better with very few grains and legumes in my diet.

[luv2beachbum]

01:41 AM on 06/05/2011

Actually the USDA food guidelines are overloaded with vegetables and grains so your logic is flawed. Perhaps you should actually read the information before commenting on it.

Sure, you may be thin if you're a vegetarian, but I can guarantee you're not healthy... there's a HUGE difference between the two.

Humans are designed to eat protein and fat. Did you ever ask yourself why they feed grains to pigs and cattle to fatten them up?