How the food pyramid has failed us

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I used to be fat. Officially, I was obese, carrying over 100 pounds in excess weight.

My parents were also obese, and both of them had gastric bypass surgery.

A lot of people would have told me I was “genetically destined” to be obese. This was a concept I had been taught in school and I believed it.

The hardest part for my family was that we didn’t become obese from guzzling sodas and eating Big Macs every day.

We followed the official guidelines for healthy eating!

I played sports. We ate margarine instead of butter. We chose low-fat, diet, and sugar-free options whenever possible.

The USDA and Food Pyramid told us this was how to eat healthily, to be healthy.

Yet here was the Ovadia family, unhappily buying larger clothes to fit our ever-expanding waistlines.

Fortunately I found better advice, but not until I was 40 years old.

This is the original food pyramid. If you’re unfamiliar with it, the items at the base of the pyramid should make up the majority of your daily intake. You eat less of the items moving up the pyramid, with the tip representing the smallest amount to consume.

As you can see, the official recommendation was to make carbohydrates the base of your daily intake. Specifically bread, pasta, and cereal get highlighted, with a suggested intake of 6-11 servings every day.

You’re then supposed to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.

The foods you’re meant to eat the least amount of are proteins and fats. And it’s fascinating that fats are put in the same category as sweets!

Let’s dive into this in more detail.

First, the carbohydrates. Aside from the impact a diet heavy in carbohydrates can have on insulin sensitivity, these foods are simply not filling. We all know that feeling of eating a huge bowl of pasta and feeling hungry again a short while later, or how easy it is to eat a lot of bread.

It’s therefore easy to quickly eat more than our body needs, resulting in weight gain. Not only that, but as we get used to eating the higher quantities, we desire even more. It’s a vicious cycle and is incredibly hard to break.

Next, we move up to fruit and vegetables. These can be more filling and contain good nutrients, but they’re not very substantial. Making them a foundational component of your diet won’t necessarily help in your fight with the flab.

Now we get to the bigger problem: the official guidelines demonize protein and fat. Not only do these foods contain lots of minerals and nutrients that our body needs, they’re also essential for losing fat! Protein and fat keep us feeling full for longer, which stops us overeating and can address insulin sensitivity. While it’s not difficult to eat bowl after bowl of cereal or pasta, there are few people who could eat steak after steak and feel hungry!

It’s also concerning that “oils” is presented as though there’s no difference between them. There’s no mention of choosing healthy oils over unhealthy oils. In reality, humans should only be consuming a few types of oil, such as extra virgin olive oil or coconut and animal derived fats, such as butter, tallow and lard. We should avoid seed oils and vegetable oils – yet the cheap price means these are used extensively, from restaurants to processed foods. If you look at the ingredients of any food item in your fridge or pantry, from mayonnaise to granola, you’re likely to see an unhealthy oil listed.

Even if you do buy extra virgin olive oil, regulatory failings mean that we can’t even be sure we’re buying the real stuff. An alarming amount of olive oil on the shelves is fake. Sadly, the prevalence of unhealthy foods around us makes it difficult and confusing to improve our health.

That’s why I’m so committed to helping people now, so more people have a chance to become healthy, fit, and energetic.

I know what it’s like to feel upset at following the guidelines and getting nowhere. It’s like following the rules at school but getting punished anyway.

If you want to cut through all the confusion and know exactly what to eat to become the healthiest you’ve ever been, and to stay off my operating table, then take my free metabolic quiz and let’s get you on the right path.