Vegan Food Pyramid makes me cringe page

[DashFire]

Somehow ran across this today online. I'm fully expecting to have nightmares about "fortified dairy substitutes" later tonight.



I definitely like ours better (though the 2011 update isn't quite as simple as the previous version, but definitely clearer), also might be nice to have a more visual version (anyone want to give it a go?)...

[magicmerl]

funny how the base is the same

[June68]

Not in the updated book. Meat is on the bottom now.

[Sabine]

Also interesting: that although they have fruits and vegetables as the base, they list the servings range for those as 5-9. Grains get 6-11. This fits with my main complaint with vegetarian cookbooks: they don't have adequate VEGETABLE recipes. Grain, grain, everywhere one looks. They should called themselves grainetarians. I eat more vegetables than the vegetarians I know.

[Dirlot]

Veg should be bulk of your food and protein the bulk of your calories.

[CaveWeirdo]

Veg should be bulk of your food and protein the bulk of your calories.

This. ^^

[Dirlot]

I just looked at the veggie numbers
6-11 servings of grains
5-9 servings of veg
So in actuality grains are on the bottom of the veggie pyramid.

And the veg consumption is less, and the grain consumption is more than Canadian Gov Guidelines.

[Brandon]

Here's my problem with having fruits and veggies as your main food source. How many cultures before the industrial age had access to every fruit and veggie you can grow???? I believe many cultures didn't thrive on fruits and veggies, but now were told that we need them??? And isn't the fruit we eat today much sweeter than we would of found in the wild???

This whole concept of eating all this produce doesn't make sense to me. It's only because we have the means of shipping it across the planet that we consume so much of it. Many cultures thrived on animal fat and meat with limited access to plants and fruits, especially living in a 4 season climate, and they did very well health wise.

[June68]

I expect eating seasonally is also part of the natural, human rhythm. We're going to try it this year although I can imagine going bat-shit crazy in March/April. Californians and other mild-climate places will have it easier, but I'll deal. I imagine that the cravings for fresh vegetables hit ancient gatherers as well and they probably picked everything in sight to get those macronutrients back up. Mammoth jerky probably got old.

[CaveWeirdo]

I went camping recently, my first since going Primal, and took a cooler box full of fresh veggies and some tinned mackerel. Someone didn't notice the tinned fish and asked me if I was vegan cos I was sitting there slicing up and munching on stuff like avocados and raw broccoli florets, and sharing my nuts and seeds while they were sharing crisps and sweets. I said no, I'm omnivorous, I just brought food that is convenient and meat would go off, don't worry I'll make up for it later with a steak at the pub! The person who asked was vegetarian and seemed genuinely surprised at how much vegetation I devoured in one sitting. She said she had never seen anyone eat a fresh avocado with a spoon before!

It's funny watching people in the supermarket eyeing up my conveyor belt full of bright coloured vegetables and fruit and possibly thinking oh I bet that fat chick is on some crazy vegan diet for weight loss, and then they spot the blocks of butter and slabs of marbled meat and that's where they get confused. I see my fellow fatties buying veggies along with low-fat frankenfoods and shake my head... I'd never dream of saying anything but I think if I can get really lean I'm gonna start preaching the gospel of meat in the supermarket!