Why Alpha’s avoid the government’s “My Plate System”
When you were back in elementary school you probably learned all about the government’s Food Pyramid. Amazingly for decades despite all the overwhelming research that revealed how flawed it was it remained unchanged for decades.
Grains, consisting of breads, cereal, rice, and pasta formed the base of the food pyramid. According to the USDA, for a period of nearly 20 years, more than 50% of your diet was supposed to come from carbohydrates!
This is terrible advice that has made millions of people fat.
Unfortunately, government agencies and the US education system are very slow to accept new research and make the necessary changes to their recommendations.
But today, we have to give them some credit because the recommendations of the recently released and updated government nutrition guidelines, the “My Plate” system, actually are not too bad.
Now, the USDA is recommending that 50% of the diet come from fruits and vegetables and a more moderate 30% from grains.
And despite the left wing “nutritionists” who seem to think that protein is unnecessary, the USDA’s My Plate system increases protein from virtually non-existent in their previous recommendations to 20% of the diet.
So, this is much better than the Fattening Food Pyramid… but I still have issues with it.
What Alpha’s do with the My Plate System
Although the My Plate system is a dramatic improvement over the old recommendations, it still has quite a few shortcomings.
First, the My Plate system has no real place for healthy fats like nuts, oils, and organic dairy products like butter and cream. Healthy fats are a critical part of any diet, and certainly not “sparingly” as the old pyramid recommended. Make sure you are getting your fair share (about 25% of calories).
Next, I would decrease grains down to 15%. Really, there are only 2 meals a day where I think you should even consider eating grains, and that is your first meal of the day and the meal after your workout as it is these two times of day that research has proven glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity to be at it’s highest. I highly recommend using Ezekiel bread as your grain of choice and I give you numerous meal plans in your Nutrition Guide to help you.
Next, I would increase protein intake from 20% to at least 30-35%. There are many benefits to increasing protein intake, such as an increased thermic effect of feeding (i.e. you burn more calories just by eating more protein), improved blood sugar control, a decrease in body fat, and an increase in calorie-burning lean muscle.
Simply by decreasing your grain intake while simultaneously increasing your body’s ability to process carbohydrates, along with increasing your overall protein consumption, you’ll be well on your way to increasing your fat loss results and growing lean healthy muscle.
Dr. Rob, Professional Alpha Male
