US Official Clears Up Mystery of What That Food Pyramid Bowl Was | Today News

(Bloomberg) -- Americans had some questions after the Trump administration released new dietary guidelines on Wednesday. Should we be eating more saturated fats? Is alcohol healthy now?

And what was that bowl with the red stuff on top in the food pyramid graphic? Oatmeal with cranberries on top? Ice cream? Cottage cheese?

At a Thursday event billed as a “policy celebration” of the freshly-updated health guidelines, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sought to clear up the mystery item of the new, upside-down food pyramid.

“What is actually in the bowl? It’s rice and beans, everyone,” she said.

Michael Dykes, chief executive officer of the International Dairy Foods Association, wasn’t ready to back down from his firm conviction that it depicted yogurt with berries, even when a colleague noted the pyramid separately featured a container clearly labeled “yogurt.”

“It just shows you can mix it with berries and do your own thing,” he maintained. “I respect Secretary Rollins, I really do, wonderful person, but to me it’s clear: That’s yogurt with strawberries on top.”

Rollins said staffers had spent weeks agonizing over every detail of the new pyramid, including “what color the back of the upside-down triangle should be” and the size of the prominent rib-eye steak.

Officials didn’t talk about alcohol at the event, and the new guidelines simply suggest that Americans limit drinking “for better overall health.”

The new guidelines send a mixed message on saturated fat, as the recommendation that they be no more than 10% of total daily calories remained the same as what the government has guided before.

Most nutritionists say that diets with lots of saturated fats are linked to higher risk of cardiovascular disease. But Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the government is “ending the war on saturated fats,” and butter has a place of honor on the new food pyramid illustration.

Clearly the Trump administration was pleased with how the illustration turned out, since they placed posters made from its details on chairs at the event.

Still, some of the illustrations in the pyramid remained under debate. Was that red ground meat in a black package, or meatloaf? Was the large bird at the top a chicken or a turkey?

“We were hoping turkey might sneak its way to the top, but the web page does ultimately identify the bird as chicken,” Alex Davidson, a spokesman for the National Turkey Federation. Yet he said the trade group welcomed the new guidelines’ emphasis on consuming more animal protein.

One group was thrilled to see its product’s placement in the new pyramid: potatoes. Despite some earlier debate about whether it’s considered more of a starch or should be removed from school meals, a potato is perched clearly in the vegetable and fruit division of the new pyramid.

“It is positive to see the new consumer graphic feature a whole, fresh potato front and center,” the National Potato Council said in a statement this week. “To see the dietary guidelines now celebrate America’s favorite vegetable represents amazing progress.”

--With assistance from Jessica Nix. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com