Eating based on the food pyramid vs Mediterranean and no meat

[timeuser84]

Hello all again. You might have heard or remember the food pyramid they would teach about in grade school, there is a Wikipedia article on it. I would prefer the latest updated version of that if its healthier then the Mediterranean food.

I thought about switching to eating healthy using the food pyramid or based on the food pyramid rather then the Mediterranean food red bean and barley recipe I eat every day. If not, maybe I can modify what I already eat to make it better or healthier.

I saw a nutritionist sort of recently and she helped me and gave me some advice to improve it or make it healthier. I already started to change it up a bit this year with adding more beans rather then just the dark red kidney beans, more fruit that is usually different types of grapes rather then bananas.

so having said all that, Is eating the food pyramid way healthier? or is eating the Mediterranean way healthier?

Also is eating no meat at all healthier too?

 

[malawi_glenn]

As long as you can get B12, zink and iron - you can skip red meat all together

Carnivorous fish can have lots of heavy metals in them, avoid as much as possible

 

[Drakkith]

Food is one of those things that is hard to give advice on. There is so much misinformation and misunderstanding about how food relates to health that it may actually outnumber the good and useful information. Even doctors are often woefully inadequate in their understanding of how food affects health, and with good reason. The human body is so complex that it simply isn't possible to understand how a specific diet will affect a specific person.

Since you're already seeing a nutritionist, I'd say to continue following her advice unless it she's pushing some diet that sounds crazy to you. Unless you have a medical condition that requires a specific diet there's no need for you to do keto, or high-carb, or anything else that severely restricts what foods you can eat.

so having said all that, Is eating the food pyramid way healthier? or is eating the Mediterranean way healthier?

The old food pyramid is apparently highly flawed, so I wouldn't use it as a guideline. The new one is supposedly better, but still flawed. I'd say you're probably okay using it as a general guideline, but don't take it as the final word in nutrition. It's just a simplified way to get nutrition information out to people who otherwise wouldn't know what they should or shouldn't eat and in what proportions. Even a somewhat flawed diet is better than complete ignorance. In other words, it's there to tell people not to eat fried chicken, pizza, and mountain dew every day. It's not there to rigidly set what you can or can't eat.

I can't say anything about the Mediterranean way as I don't know anything about it.

Note that one thing that many people don't take into account is the amount of food they consume. No diet is healthy if you eat so much food that you're morbidly obese.

Also is eating no meat at all healthier too?

Unlikely. First, 'meat' encompasses a wide variety of different types of food, such as fish and other types of seafood, red meat, white meat, and more. These all differ in their nutritional benefits, so you can't lump them all into a single category and say anything useful about it.

The only advice I can give you that I think most everyone would agree with is to eat a variety of foods and use moderation when it comes to sweets, high-fat foods such as fried foods, and maybe salty foods. A dessert a day isn't going to kill you, nor is eating fried chicken once a week. But if half your caloric intake is from processed sugary snack foods or the grease and oils in fried chicken and greasy pizza, you likely have a problem.

Finally, don't worry about your diet very much. If you're not eating obviously unhealthy food every day and you're getting all your nutritional needs then there is little reason to spend a great deal of effort (and perhaps money) to try to eat healthier. Many people would benefit more from focusing on other areas of health, such a weight loss and exercise, than they would by trying to change their diet.

 

[jim mcnamara]

We should not and cannot give you good advice on nutrition. For example @drmalawi gave you a correct but somewhat incomplete suggestion. I see no explicitly mentioned PUFAS (polyunsaturated fatty acids - ALA, DHA, EPA, for example).

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