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Comment by anonuser123456 | Hacker News Reader

One has to only look at the dumpster fire that is the USDA nutritional guidelines to know "never".

"Die out". Everybody dies eventually. It's just a long process waiting for science to progress by funerals.

Indeed, plate tectonics (sort of, Wegener had the idea but no evidence/proof) and hand washing for doctors/surgeons both faced widespread opposition, just off the top of my head.

mRNA is another example

Not to worry, there are plenty of opportunists who will line up to carry the torch once the older ones die.

What's wrong with the USDA nutritional guidelines?

I think the OP might be conflating the USDA nutritional guidelines with the food pyramid, which was rather blatantly bullshit and influenced by the agricultural industry.

Where can I find a science-based food pyramid chart?

It is beyond the limits of science. The experiment to determine an optimal food pyramid has too many confounding variables and the experiements necessary to validate them would probably not pass an IRB and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

> What's wrong

Diabetes and obesity are still rampant, so I'd say something is certainly wrong.

I’m not a fan of the guidelines myself (too carb-heavy, IMO). However I don’t think obesity and diabetes are rampant among people who eat 2000 calories and exercise 30 minutes per day.

>However I don’t think obesity and diabetes are rampant among people who eat 2000 calories and exercise 30 minutes per day

And this is where the issue gets complicated. Why do people eat more than 2000 calories / day and exercise less. Are they lazy and stupid, or is there something deeper.

Personally, I think the most compelling argument appears to be that high insulin levels hijack the hypothalamus through hormonal disregulation. The hypothalamus of these insulin resistant people drives them to over eat and expend less energy because it thinks they are underfed.

This model suggests severely restricting carbohydrate in order to drive down insulin levels.

You make it more complicated than it is: we have easy access to tons of calories, our lives don’t require us to move a lot and we are hardwired to find/eat calories and store them in the body for worse times.

Low-carb certainly isn’t the solution. For some it is, but not for most.

I don't think the people having diabetes and obesity are sticking to the guidelines.

How is dairy, a food that was almost unobtainable before agriculture (that 60% of the world is intolerant to) a part of the food pyramid most people NEED two-three servings a day of?

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