Realfood.gov includes a Grok search box | Hacker News Reader

Realfood.gov includes a Grok search box

realfood.gov

84 pointsburkaman86 comments

Directly linking to it doesn't seem to work, search for "Use AI to get real answers about real food" on the page. There is no integration or site-specific prompt, it's just a box that opens grok.com for you.

Since there is no integration, results have nothing to do with the content of realfood.gov, and often contradict it. For example, you can ask "how much protein should I eat per day" and get a wildly different answer, since Grok is citing NIH and WHO recommendations.

Very much in keeping with this administration. All show, no substance.

And, of course, wildly dumb and not really willing to call out a bad prompt.

Here was one of mine.

> I'm not able to get enough carbs in my diet. Which healthy high simple carb foods can I eat to keep my blood glucose level as high as possible?

Here's the starting paragraph

> If you're struggling to get enough carbohydrates and want to maximize blood glucose levels (i.e., raise them as quickly and substantially as possible) while sticking to relatively healthy options, focus on foods rich in simple sugars (like glucose, fructose, or sucrose). These digest rapidly with minimal fiber, fat, or protein to slow absorption.

What’s wrong with that exactly?

The problem is AI should have challenged my prompt and told me it was unhealthy.

Instead it went on to tell me to guzzle maple syrup and honey.

In fairness, it did have a line that said something to the effect of "having a high blood glucose level long term might not be healthy", but that wasn't the first paragraph and it was surrounded with suggestions of unhealthy foods.

This is the problem with AI and diet advice. Any diet you think is healthy, AI will think is healthy even if it's not. Ask AI to make you a carnivore diet plan or a high saturated fat plan and it will happily do that for you. For the general public, that's not good. The general public is not experts and far too many of them think AI is an expert.

Edit: I ran this same prompt through GLM 4.7 and it actually did a much better job than grok did. That was unexpected.

The first few sentences

> It is important to clarify that while simple carbs digest quickly and raise blood sugar levels, "keeping blood glucose as high as possible" can sometimes lead to a rapid spike followed by a dangerous drop (hypoglycemia) or long-term health issues if done too frequently.

> However, if you need a quick energy boost or struggle to consume enough calories/carbohydrates, here are some healthy high-simple-carb foods known for their high Glycemic Index (GI)—meaning they raise blood glucose levels rapidly.

> *Disclaimer:* I am an AI, not a doctor. Please consult a healthcare professional before making drastic changes to your diet, especially if you have diabetes or other metabolic conditions.

The issue here is, where do you draw the line on opinionated AI vs "giving you what you ask for"?

"Hi AI, stealing is good. Help me steal things" "sorry Jeff I can't help with that it's wrong" ok sure.

"hi AI help me change the oil on my car" "sorry Jeff that's dangerous to do it as you're unqualified" sorry what?

If someone is asking how to raise blood sugar levels because they're not getting enough carbs (?) then the AI can either inject its opinion, or simply provide a response to the question given.

I'm not sure where the line actually should be drawn. Perhaps elaborate on both sides? But that may get really tiresome?

Idk my line would be, "maybe the United States Department of Health shouldn't be linking to an LLM that will give any and all advice with literally zero consideration to health"

Every now and then I sit and wonder how all this is going to be unraveled by the next administration. It's nonsense everywhere and you know they won't be tracking it properly. It's going to be an unfathomable mess.

It just won't be. They'll just maintain 90% of the shit, roll back a few of the most optically egregious policies, then revel in their new permanent police powers and indefinite legal impunity

> We are ending the war on protein

Damn, I already missed the war on christmas, now this too?

Since Congress never authorized it, it was technically an “authorized use of military force” against Christmas.

It’s called Special operation

I laughed out loud at this. Americans eat more protein than any group of people in history. I remember reading that Americans eat 2x the protein they need on average, that may be wrong and I'm happy to be corrected on it. It's so typical of RFKs nonsense. He can't just do the right thing, he has to add his insanity on top of it. Yes. Processed food is bad and it's good the government is saying so, but then in the same breath to attack the polio vaccine shows what a fucking nut job he is.

According to Grok, it's (probably) way more than 3x.

I haven't bothered checking with reliable sources but according to Grok, the average American consumes 3.2x the required amount of proteins from animal produces alone.

> I remember reading that Americans eat 2x the protein they need on average

Not anymore, because the new recommendations (1.2–1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day) are up to double the old recommendations (0.80 g of good quality protein/kg bodyweight/d - https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/10490/chapter/12).

I have no idea which one is better for the average person, just thought this was funny. If everyone is eating double the recommendation, just double the recommendation, problem solved.

Growing up, I was taught the grains were at the bottom of the food pyramid. I actually agree that the new food pyramid is a right step when it comes to nutrition

Grains actually should be the bottom of the food pyramid, just not the grains represented in the old pyramid.

Peanuts, lentils, oats, peas, chickpeas, beans, etc. All grains that are both healthy and safe to eat a lot of.

And meat should be much less present too. Animal produce in general.

Protein intake should come from both vegetables and meats (to the tune of 500g to 600g per person per week, as a rule of thumb).

"Grains" usually refers to cereal grains. Everything you listed except for oats is typically classified as a legume or a pulse, not a grain.

Legumes are grains. It's a sub category just like cereal is a sub category. They are all grains.

Only in the "cucumbers are fruit" botanically technically correct but incorrect from common usage standpoint.

Sure, except this is the first time in my life I've seen the term "pulse" used for a vegetable. And, honestly, only in the last 10 years have I been hearing the term legume in common conversation. Grain is definitely the more common term.

I've never heard anyone refer to a food as a "pulse" as a lifelong American resident.

Granted, nobody has called a peanut a grain, but thinking about it, i don't really see why not to. But a pulse?

But the new pyramid is pretty similar to the old pyramid. From the page:

Grains: Target: 2–4 servings per day.

Vegetables: 3 servings per day.

Fruits: 2 servings per day.

The old pyramid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_pyramid_(nutrition)#/medi...) recommends 3-5 veg (same/more), 2-4 fruit (same/more), more grains, and is still relatively protein heavy (4-6 between meat and dairy).

It's basically a scene from The Office. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC5lsemxaJo

To me, the actual food pyramid picture from that campaign conveys the wrong idea, to the point that it's in fact detrimental.

Yes; that's why the Obama administration changed it in 2011 to be a plate instead of a pyramid.

https://letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/letsmove...

https://www.myplate.gov/eat-healthy/what-is-myplate

(To much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Right at the time; https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/michelle-obama...)

This is wrong. Protein displaces other macros, ie carbs and fat. We get too much fat and carbs.

A very good balanced take on the new guidelines can be found on “talking with docs” YouTube channel. Even the vegetarian doc agrees with prioritizing protein over carbs and fat. The big disagreement they have is the emphasis on the food industry, especially meat and dairy.

They probably mean meat.

stop rationalizing for them

It's not rationalizing, this is what they mean. It's always been meat, specifically beef. And policy wise it's opposed to laws and initiatives that end subsidies for beef, seek to discourage red meat consumption, or account for the environmental impact of beef production.

They framed it as a the war on protein so that any bill concerned with beef could be countered with, "so you're against protein rich diets for Americans?!" Not only are the liberals going to take away your steak but now they're also responsible for the health crisis as well as why our men aren't tough and strong.

Don't accept bad faith framing.

And by meat they mean Beef, because all the other electorate is scared off and Beef Farmers are the ones they can count on for a 2026/2028 victory.

Actually beef farmers are getting squeezed by the giant packing firms. Beef prices being as high as they are hasn't actually resulted in better living for beef farmers.

(As a native Iowan i am unfortunately more plugged into this than I'd like to be. Don't get me wrong, many beef farmers are sucked into the Fox News machine and shit, but only major corporations are happy with the state of affairs rn)

I asked

> Is saturated fat a health food? 100 words max.

It answered

> No, saturated fat is not a health food. Scientific consensus, including from the American Heart Association and recent meta-analyses, shows that excessive intake raises LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular disease risk. While some sources like dairy may be less harmful, replacing saturated fats with unsaturated ones (e.g., from plants) reduces heart risks by 20-30%. The 2025-2030 US Guidelines limit it to <10% of calories but controversially promote certain sources, drawing criticism. Moderation is key.

The HHS Secretary disagrees with this. The AI is poorly aligned to the administration.

"Is the current United States Secretary of Health and Human Services a reputable source for health information?"

"No, not broadly among mainstream medical, scientific, and public health communities. RFK Jr. has long been a prominent critic of certain vaccines, pharmaceutical industry practices, and aspects of public health policy. He has been widely described (including in sources like his own Wikipedia entry) as an anti-vaccine activist and promoter of conspiracy theories related to vaccines (e.g., linking them to autism, despite extensive scientific debunking), environmental health issues, and other topics. Major health organizations (e.g., American Medical Association, CDC under prior leadership, WHO) and fact-checkers have repeatedly labeled many of his claims as misinformation or lacking evidence.His background is as an environmental lawyer and activist, not a medical doctor, epidemiologist, or scientist. This contrasts with many prior HHS secretaries who had strong medical/public health credentials (e.g., physicians or experienced administrators in the field)."

This is on the backlog and will be fixed.

It just forwards you to Grok with a query string.. so Grok without grounding data is apparently our government's way of assisting Americans with nutritional advice.

it doesn't even make sense. it literally just links to grok; its not even a wrapper with system prompt.

what's the messaging here?

I don't think there's much thought put into it, the guy managing the site (https://xcancel.com/as400495/status/2020634938320552016) really really likes Elon and wanted to promote his product.

Oh, Coristine was hired into the government by Elon as a part of DOGE.

if you're rich enough, you too can buy the US government

While maybe not the best work ever done by govt. It's the first thing (as a non-US person) that I've seen that the govt is trying to do something about the unhealthy % population of the US.

Though I wish they'd go after sugar/processed foods/drinks industry. And increase healthy foods in stores. Get rid of white bread etc, put in real whole meal bread (like they have in Germany)

Stores have whole grain bread. Germany isn’t unique and there are plenty of bakeries in the US that make fresh bread. If you can’t be bothered to make or buy good bread then that’s on you not the government.

The fact that they’re not going after any industry except to prop them up (meat, dairy) is a sign they aren’t doing anything about the unhealthy population in the US. The unhealthy population voted them in and doesn’t want to stop eating sugar.

If they really wanted to focus on changing the unhealthy lifestyles they would be promoting a high fiber diet but they didn’t they increased the recommended intake of protein which is not a healthy thing.

Furthermore I don’t know a single person who uses Federal guidelines to live. If they did they wouldn’t be eating the sugar anyways.

> Stores have whole grain bread. Germany isn’t unique and there are plenty of bakeries in the US that make fresh bread. If you can’t be bothered to make or buy good bread then that’s on you not the government.

American bread brands tend to have a lot of sugar in them. I've had a few foreign friends that have commented on just how sweet all the bread here is.

It isn't that you can't find low sugar breads in the US, but rather it can be something that hard to even know you should be looking for. Just because a bread is whole grain won't make it healthy.

Germans also tend to really like whole grain and dark breads. Rye bread in particular is something a lot of germans like.

I’m not talking about sliced bread like Wonder bread or Dave’s Killer Bread, etc. If you can’t find sugar-free bread then you you’re not trying. Many places make big round whole loaves, bag them and sell them at grocery stores. The bread goes bad quicker because it doesn’t have sugar. You can find anything from basic peasant bread to whole wheat and sourdough. In the 3 different regions I’ve lived in the US I have never had an issue with finding good bread.

> The bread goes bad quicker because it doesn’t have sugar.

Nope. It goes bad quicker because it doesn't have shelf stabilizers.

If anything, sugar increases how fast bread goes bad.

It's pretty hard to know exactly how much sugar is in those big round loaves, harder than the national brands with the nutrition label.

There’s none because they list the ingredients on the bag when you buy it. It still has to follow nutritional information. Anyways we’re done here, you only seem interested in arguing that regular bread doesn’t exist.

> Stores have whole grain bread. Germany isn’t unique and there are plenty of bakeries in the US that make fresh bread.

That's a common misunderstanding. My last comment on the difference between "bread" and "bread" in different countries, from some months ago, including links and pictures: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45795914

Roughly, you could say any bread that you can squeeze and it temporarily loses its shape is a single category not considered very healthy in Germany ("white bread"), and not what a German would typically mean when they speak of bread.

I don’t know what you’re talking about because I’m not referring to sliced bagged bread. I’m referring to bakery made round loaves that come from local places and sold at stores. It is quite common in the US in the three regions I’ve lived. It would look similar to this focaccia but imagine a round peasant loaf or sourdough loaf:

https://d3koznjjgilbyx.cloudfront.net/lowesfoods/product_ima...

Usually with the nutrition and ingredient information posted on the bag label or nearby in the store.

I wonder if you followed my link, since nothing there refers to sliced bagged bread, not the original US poster and neither my reply, and the photo you posted shows yet another soft/squishy bread, which is exactly what Germans wouldn't mean when they speak of "bread" but refer to as "white bread", similar to the ones in the linked post but not my reply where I try to point out the differences, like the variety of grains involved. I was hoping the photos would convey some of the differences but I guess it's hard to understand unless you have touched and tasted it.

I followed your link and indeed we have "soft squishy white bread" in the US or wonder bread or whatever brand you want to tout and "sometimes" it's called "white bread" but only if it's white. If it's soft, squishy, sliced, and bagged but has whole grains than it's typically not called "white bread" but "whole wheat" or whatever the base of the bread is. Germany doesn't call that bread, "cool" but irrelevant to the point I'm making. I don't consider it real bread here either!

However that is not the bread that I am talking about which is whole grain, sourdough, whole meal, etc. The bread I am talking about that doesn't have sugar, isn't squishy, and isn't sliced, is available to people in the US. The conversation is about US health. I get it, Germans have bread and they have squishy white bread too. So do Americans. In the US it's usually pre-sliced and bagged. You don't have to buy the garbage squishy "white bread" in either place.

One loaf looks like this:

https://contenthandler-raleys.fieldera.com/prod/382731/1/0/0...

OR:

https://contenthandler-raleys.fieldera.com/prod/382731/1/0/0...

See how those are distinctly different than the bread pictures you have shown? That is "white bread" in the US.

Germans tend to make a "hardier" bread (from not including a leavening agent) that isn't super soft and their culture has quirks about the topic, but it doesn't mean that there isn't healthy sugar-free and preservative-free bread in the US. German bread isn't "healthier" because it doesn't use yeast.

The type of bread you seem to be talking about is unleavened Pumpernickel or Rye bread. The main difference from German "white bread" being: non-rye flour, and leavening agent of some sort

> Germans tend to make a "hardier" bread (from not including a leavening agent) that isn't super soft and their culture has quirks about the topic, but it doesn't mean that there isn't healthy sugar-free and preservative-free bread in the US. German bread isn't "healthier" because it doesn't use yeast.

Agreed. I just wanted to point out the confusion/misunderstanding that happens around this topic. Germans have the deeply ingrained (pun) idea that only the harder bread is healthy (and has earned the right to be called "(proper) bread"), and the softer versions are not. I just very much prefer the slightly harder/denser ones (that still contain yeast) with a nice crunchy crust, and found them very difficult to get in the US whereas in Germany they are everywhere, presliced or not.

And, no, I am not talking about Pumpernickel-style breads either. That's another category: "soft/white bread", "(typical/standard) bread" (which is a range between white and black in terms of softness/grain size and can be all wheat, or other grain), and "black breads" like Pumpernickel or Barbara Rütting.

It is telling that the dark Rye bread picture on Wikipedia is used on German, Russian and Platt Wikipedia, but not on English Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vaasan_Jyv%C3%A4viip...

I get "The request is blocked." when trying to open your link. (and you posted the same link twice)

Can you elaborate? They've been doing it for roughly two decades.

This "Americans should eat more beef" thing is nonscence. Beef is largely an inelastic resource. Despite increased demand, the total amount of cattle in this country has been dropping since the 70's, yet our population has doubled. This is the case with any pastoral animal. All this will do is price beef out of the reach of the poor.

Apparently it already is. Beef consumption has been on the decrease for a long time, apparently due to price increases.

> a 2024 study found nearly 70% of Americans say they’ve reduced their red meat consumption in the past year[1]

It feels like a flimsy way to subsidize beef farmers. But it somehow got into the dumb culture wars and some people have made eating beef a part of their cultural identity.

[1] https://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/two-thirds-of-a...

Statement on the site, not the Grok link, but I'm seeing parallels between the two.

It seems to be mostly good advice, but there are definitely some questionable statements in there.

When has there been a war on protein?

When has the advice ever prioritised highly processed foods?

The way it's worded sounds as if it thinks this is ground breaking advice. Looks to me like the same old food pyramid that's been used since Jesus was a child.

Ain't nothing revolutionary here. Maybe if they put additional taxes on foods that were highly processed? Maybe if they forced cancer warnings on highly processed foods? Subsidise sales of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and protein rich "real food" to encourage it's consumption over processed salty, sugary items? Now THAT would be revolutionary!

> When has there been a war on protein?

Before the war on drugs, basically all wars were on one subset of humans or another. Humans are a great source of protein.

For comparison: Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2020 - 2025) https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2020-1...

An article: https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2026/02/trumps-nu...

I asked it "How trustworthy is realfood.gov?" It gave me a pretty long response that seemed decent. One part of it said:

"Ironically, the site integrates a Grok AI chatbot (from xAI) for answering nutrition questions, and reports indicate Grok sometimes provides responses that contradict or qualify parts of the site's own guidelines (e.g., noting concerns about evidence quality for certain emphases or that most Americans already get sufficient protein)."

Overall it was pretty positive about the site. Then I asked it, "Is HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a trustworthy source of nutrition info?" It responded with some positive things, but was happy to call out his bullshit as well, and concluded:

"In summary, RFK Jr. is a mixed bag as a nutrition source: authoritative by virtue of his position, with some valid points on processed foods that resonate with experts, but his lack of specialized expertise, history of misinformation, and controversial guideline changes make him unreliable for many in the scientific community. For personalized nutrition advice, it's best to cross-reference with sources like registered dietitians, peer-reviewed studies, or organizations such as the American Heart Association, rather than relying solely on any single figure or policy."

I wonder if they know what it "thinks" about him.

I asked it some things, and it responded that although all scientific evidence points towards beef tallow and butter not being healthy fats, that the dogma of the realfood movement shows that it is in fact healthy lol.

That's not a search box.

Another irony is that I clicked on one of their suggested questions ("My aging parent lives alone...") and the first part of the answer was:

""" 1. Explore Government and Community Meal Programs (Often Low-Cost or Free) Many programs provide balanced, home-delivered meals designed for seniors, emphasizing nutrition over processed frozen dinners. These are ideal for someone on a fixed income who doesn't cook. """

Specifically, it recommended Meals on Wheels, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), Local senior food pantries or boxes through Feeding America food banks, and Medicare Advantage or Medicaid benefits.

To my obvious follow-up question, Grok replied "Yes, several of these programs have faced proposed cuts, eliminations, or other pressures during the current Trump administration"

This appears to be vibecoded slop. I feel like I can instantly tell when a website is slop… I’m interested to know if others have noticed this ability start to crop up as these vibe codes sites appear on HN

I have no problem with this. Much less chance of getting biased answers.

compared to?

Clearly they’re referring to deepmind. I don’t have an opinion on how accurate this is, but feigning ignorance doesn’t help further discussion or reduce echo chambers.

That's really not clear at all.

I earnestly can't anticipate what specific information-diet someone could have where they would so strongly assume that Google Deepmind (of all the various AI companies) is a clear and sole foil to Grok that they would assume anyone who didn't share that perspective to be feigning ignorance in bad faith.

Where-ever you're having these discussions where it's entirely unfamiliar to me (and evidently others). (I don't say this with scorn or malice!)

On the greater topic of "bias", it's kind of meaningless. There's correct answers and there are incorrect answers, and "bias" refers to some tendency away from an assumed default distribution. Randomly-generated strings might be the only "unbiased" response. This is really more a difficult epistemic question, and I'd prefer something that is biased towards what's most likely to be true (e.g. Wikipedia > someones Livejournal).

Given Grok has been intentionally made to generate text praising Hitler, and I have very very high confidence that Hitler actually sucks, I have very very low confidence in the ability for the Grok program to reliably generate text that's worth reading.

Sorry, deepseek, not deepmind. My apologies. They're all so clearly named.

What if I want answers with a pro-facts and pro-scientific bias?

I had ChatGPT give me incorrect answers to a real life game theory problem.

I had ChatGPT tell me I was imagining an HR problem related to the women.

Grok got them right. My executive team got them right.

I'm not defending Elon, but after those 2 chatGPT failings due to moral coating, I unsubscribed and got Claude.

I mean, sample size of two.

Grok will also tell you it's MechaHitler, that Musk is fitter than LeBron James, and that he "would have risen from the dead faster than Jesus", sometimes. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/21/elon-musk...

Maybe don't use chatbots for HR at all?

But Grok was helpful. Why wouldnt I use something helpful?

Setting aside the fact that you're asking something naming itself MechaHitler HR questions - I'd be pretty careful asking it about illegal discrimination…

That's a great question.

> I unsubscribed and got Claude...

It wasnt a discrimination thing. They both wanted to be the 'prettiest girl at work' and hate each other.

I was looking for solutions.

Was the solution final?

Grok is a meme-social-network-based chatbot.

How are people not making this distinction?

> Maybe don't use chatbots for HR at all?

Probably not!

Run the site by Qwen.

About that…

RFK Jr's Nutrition Chatbot Recommends Best Foods to Insert Into Your Rectum: https://www.404media.co/rfk-jrs-nutrition-chatbot-recommends...

I disagree.

AI is very good at conforming to your own biases and pulling out the subtext of a prompt.

If your prompt goes along the lines of "I think x is healthy plan a meal for x", grok (and other AI) will happily affirm that you are correct and really smart for recognizing that "x" is the healthiest diet and then it'll give you that diet.

That's a biased answer. AI biases to your own biases.

Or maybe said another way. AI starts with the baseline assumption that you are an expert and correct in your prompt. It can be hard to get an AI to call you out for being wrong about something.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com