A new food pyramid brings together international dietary recommendations to make a unified global pyramid. The new pyramid was made by 22 nutritionists from around the world led by Brigham Young Univ.’s Prof. Karen Della Corte. The new guide is designed to reflect broad agreements from multiple countries.
The pyramid is built off of the guidelines from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, China, the Netherlands and Nordic nations and more than 200 studies. The new pyramid follows three principles. Plants should be the foundation of a diet. A person should pick healthy fats and proteins. And eating healthy carbs is more important than cutting out carbs.
“Despite what people often hear, there’s actually substantial agreement in nutrition science about the foundations of healthy eating,” said Prof. Della Corte. “We wanted to bring those shared principles together and translate an extensive body of scientific evidence into a coherent and practical food guide pyramid.”
The pyramid has a base of fruits, vegetables and whole grains along with carbohydrates that have a high fiber-to-sugar ratio. It recommends picking plant oils over fats like butter and proteins like chicken, beans and fish over red or processed meat.
“For both health and sustainability reasons, carbohydrate-rich foods should provide a substantial share of our energy, so their quality is particularly important,” Anette Buyken, professor at Paderborn Univ., said. “Alongside sugar and fiber content, we should consider how these foods affect blood glucose, as reflected by their glycemic index, especially because many people worldwide [have blood sugar concerns].”
The new international pyramid agrees with decades of research that found that eating red meat regularly is tied to heart disease, cancer and premature death. So, it recommends less of it. It also recommends keeping sugar to less than 10 percent of a person’s daily calories.
The nice thing about this international food pyramid is that it can be applied to all different cultures’ cuisines. “A healthy diet won’t look exactly the same for everyone around the world,” Prof. Della Corte said. “Durum pasta, basmati rice, tortillas, rice noodles, bulgur and many other staples with a low to moderate glycemic index can all fit into a healthy diet. People can follow the same underlying principles using traditional foods that are locally available, affordable and culturally appropriate for them.”
“We need food environments that make it easy to put the pyramid’s recommendations into practice,” said Prof. Buyken. “Knowing what is healthy and being motivated to eat healthily is not enough when these choices are difficult or expensive.”
