Food Theory: The Food Pyramid Conspiracy

This channel has everything, a catchy theme, comedy, education, memes and more, that's why I'm always excited when I wanna watch a video. Anyways matpat ever tried power scaling, power scaling is fun, you should try it sometimes

dear matpat, can you do a theory about discount prices? i feel like even when things are on discount, they keep the same cost

I don’t think Matpat can look at a Pyramid without making a bill cypher or Triforce joke

A small note on the Swedish food pyramid used in this video (the double pyramid version, not the one from 1974). I'm Swedish and I got curious when it was brought up since I had never seen that version before. When I went to school I was taught something called "Kostcirkeln" (basically "the diet circle") which is a lot more balanced than the 1974 food pyramid, and I was surprised that it didn't get a mention in this video for that reason. Anyway, so I was able to track down the image used in the video and read the article where it came from, and quickly found out that 1) the image was created by a local grocery line here and isn't actually created by any kind of nutritional authority and 2) It isn't actually meant to be used as a dietary aid. Rather, the pyramid is a visualization of the average modern diet and meant to be directly compared with the 1974 pyramid. The reason why there are "two" triangles is because the top one (labeled "empty calories) doesn't have an equivalent in the 1974 pyramid since it consists mainly of nutritionless junk food. I also think it's probably to show that the average Swedish person eats more junk food than meat + dairy combined, since they take up a smaller portion of the pyramid. The data is based on information from the Swedish institute of agriculture (jordbruksverket) and is part of a 2016 advertisement campain by the COOP grocery chain. They basically want to inform the public about the poor general diet, as well as assure their customers that the grocery chain has plenty of nutritious products that they can use to better their diet :) I wouldn't call this "two pyramids pyramid" a food pyramid at all for this reason, since it isn't meant as a diet aid, rather a grim portrayal of the Swedish populations actual poor diet I thought it was interesting since this episode is partially about the impact advertisements can have in spreading food misinformation and deceiving the public. If you actually would like to learn about the kind of diet recommendations that Swedish people are given today, I recommend looking into kostcirkeln. Even if you don't speak the language, most of the images are illustrated. I wouldn't say kostcirkeln is perfect- but at least it isn't like 40% soda and donuts lol.

I never understood the whole "People in other place are starving, so you should eat this food" thing. If someone told me this, I would probably respond with, "Then give it to them. I'm not starving"

The fact that this video isn’t called the food pyramid scheme is a huge missed opportunity in my opinion.

when i was in preschool i saw a food pyramid with gluten and dairy, legit the exact two things im allergic to, and they said it's the most important part of any diet and i legit started crying thinking i was gonna die cause the two food groups i have to have to survive, i couldn't have.

I mostly grew up in the wake of MyPyramid and teachers just accepted it so blindly despite the fact it made literally no sense. Teachers didn't even bother trying to explain it to me and they mostly just told me it was the basis for our school lunches, even though we usually never got whole grains because the school couldn't afford it

I find it rather threatening that so many things we learn is because food industries are like "We need to keep our money, so let's lie to our folks until they consume. Best teach it to our children in school!". And you see this on Food Theory by just binging a bit! Like every third episode is 'bout some government or food industry pulling a pinnochio.

Is anyone else surprised that there isn't a "The Conspiracy Theorist" channel yet?

I appreciate that these videos show that the real conspiracies aren't consisting of microchips and space lasers. It's all about corporate lobbying and biases. Thanks MatPat!

I actually wrote a paper on this topic last semester! It was about agenda-driven influence on science, and discussed how food industries lobby the US government in order to have a say in FDA nutrition guidelines. I mostly covered the MyPlate Guide, so it was really cool to see this video, which goes into a more comprehensive history!

I remember taking a freaking test on the my pyramid thing back when I was like maybe 7-8, and you had to PASS it or else couldn’t do recess until you did. I’m glad I’m not in school anymore.

Here in Portugal we grew up with a food circle called “Roda dos Alimentos”. It featured 8 groups. In slices proportional to their serving sizes there were: vegetables, fruits, oil and butter (fats), dairy, proteins (meat, fish and eggs), peas and beans, carbs (potatoes, pasta and bread). What about the eighth? It was water! And it was right in the centre of the circle.

Man I pointed so much of this out to my health teacher in highschool and she always just blew me off and discredited what I said. Sometimes she’d say ‘show me your sources and maybe I’ll talk to you’ but she never wanted to see it. I was so mad, I had done research and she just thought everything I had to say was some kind of argumentative ‘your teaching is bad’ kind of thing. Which it never was. Just saying, not everyone needs dairy and grains aren’t the only way to base a diet. Walking is better than no exercise and more exercise is better than walking. Ugh...old memories killing my brain...

15:48 matpat talks about diet coke and it shows diet pepsi. i thought we went through this already

In New Zealand I've always noticed that at the stores you have to walk pass a few junk food before you get to the fruits and vegetables aisle it's tempting not to buy the junk food while getting there.

I distinctly remember being in my fifth grade health class, and getting to the part about the food pyramid only for my teacher to pause and admit that she was required to teach us the food pyramid as it is shown, but that the entire thing is messed up by the government, and that it’s completely wrong.

in my school we had the my plate, the old food pyramid, and the weird staircase pyramid. and i specifically remember being confused and pointing out that they were contradicting eachother. my health teacher acted like i was crazy and brushed it off

here's my own take of the food pyramid/triangle situation when i was younger i was taught to have somewhere between 5-8 cups of water a day, and when i took around 3 cups, I felt it was too much. same with food; dont have so many calories, eat more protein, eat more of this food. I was living a long-lasting nightmare, but now that i am older and much smarter (but still very stupid), I know how to live life with your own standards. drink as much water as you want but still drink water, if you have a problem with nutrients and minerals such as less sodium, iron, vitamin A, or an increase in those things, fit your diet to naturally curve to your needs. less sodium? more salty foods. more iron? less high iron foods. Its now what i know and you need to know, so if you're young drink like 2-3 not 5-8. and fruit is one thing you should be counting on for nutrients that taste good to you. veggies can even be made tasty on some cirumstances too.