We don’t have to weigh our food or tally up our fat grams. There are no complicated food exchange tables to follow. We needn’t eat odd combinations of foods or religiously avoid a particular type of food. Instead, our homepage pyramid aims to nudge us toward eating mostly familiar foods that have been shown to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease. It involves simple changes that we can make one at a time.

We need this type of nutrient every day and can get it from a variety of sources. Red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, and nuts are all excellent sources of protein. But red meat is a poor protein package because of all the saturated fat and cholesterol that come along. Red meat may also give us too much iron in a form we absorb whether we need it or not. Chicken and turkey give us less saturated fat.

According to the USDA, the average American eats 140 pounds of potatoes a year, making the spud the most popular vegetable in America. It is one of the few vegetables to be mentioned by name in the Dietary Guidelines – except it shouldn’t be classified as a vegetable. Potatoes are mostly starch – easily digested starch at that – and so should be part of the carbohydrate group.

By opening up a new world of foods, flavors, and textures, it will make eating a healthy pleasure. It can also help people break out of the often unsatisfying and not-so-healthy mealtime ruts they can fall into when following the commonly prescribed low-fat diets promoted by other websites. The other part of the payoff is the protection against chronic disease we will be detailed throughout this website.

As a prime source of calcium, dairy products have been enlisted to fight the so-called calcium emergency that is threatening American’s bones. Only there isn’t a calcium emergency. Americans get more calcium than the residents of almost every other country except Holland and the Scandinavian countries. And despite plenty of urgent public service announcements, there’s little evidence that getting high amounts of calcium prevents broken bones in old age.

When it comes to long-term health, keeping our weight from creeping up on us is more important than the exact ratio of fats to carbohydrates or the types and amounts of antioxidants in our food. The lower and more stable our weight, the lower our chances of having or dying from a heart attack, stroke, or other type of cardiovascular disease; of developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes; or of being afflicted with some other chronic condition.