The rise, fall, and possible return of the food pyramid

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump and a man on a mission to “Make America Healthy Again,” shares his plan to change what he claims is the country’s toxin-filled food culture. He may soon bring back a remnant of the past to help make that happen.

The Trump administration is considering bringing back the food pyramid when the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) jointly update the U.S. Dietary Guidelines next month, Bloomberg reported.

“We are on the cusp of issuing dietary guidelines that will change the food culture in this country,” Kennedy told reporters earlier this month. HHS and USDA update the guidelines every five years.

A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told Bloomberg on Thursday that “Kennedy is committed to new dietary recommendations rooted in rigorous science” and that “the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will be a big part of the Trump administration’s commitment to making America healthy again.” A USDA spokesperson said the updated guidelines “will address the epidemic of chronic disease plaguing our nation by prioritizing whole, healthy, and nutritious foods.”

TIME has reached out to both departments about the potential return of the food pyramid. The photo is expected to focus on protein and whole foods, which Kennedy has long supported because it aims to steer the public away from ultra-processed food products, unnamed sources told Bloomberg.

Here’s what to know about the emergence of the food pyramid as a guideline for the American diet, how it lost popularity, and why it may be making a comeback.

Climb the food pyramid

The USDA’s dietary advice initially came as a warning. Published by Wilbur O. Atwater, the famous chemist and nutritionist, wrote in the Farmers’ Bulletin in 1894: “Unless care is taken in the choice of food, it may lead to a one-sided or unbalanced diet, that is, one in which the protein or fuel ingredients (carbohydrates and fats) are supplied in excess. … The evils of overeating may not be felt immediately, but sooner or later they are sure to appear.”

Over the years, US authorities have tried to make recommendations about what Americans should eat, and create images so the public can easily understand the dietary recommendations.

In 1943, during World War II, the USDA issued nutritional advice in the form of the “Seven Essentials,” which took into account potential shortages in rations, according to a chapter by Carol Davis and Ita Saltus in the 1999 book. Eating habits in America: changes and consequences. Three of the seven categories are allocated to fruits and vegetables, and one slot each is allocated to the following: milk and dairy products; Meat, poultry, fish and eggs. Bread, flour and cereals. Fortified butter or ghee. But she did not recommend serving sizes from each food group.

In 1956, the basic seven were simplified to the basic four, and organized into groups: milk, meat, fruits, vegetables, and grains. It also provided rough daily serving suggestions for each group: four servings each of vegetables, fruits, and breadcrumbs, two servings for meat, and “some” for milk and dairy products.

In the 1970s, the US Dietary Guidelines, as Americans know them today, began to take shape, as disease became increasingly associated with unhealthy diets. Dietary fats were increasingly under scrutiny, and in 1977, a Senate committee led by Senator George McGovern (D, SD) issued dietary goals for the United States that recommended consuming less sugar, sodium, and fat—and more complex carbohydrates and “naturally occurring” sugars.

Then, in 1980, the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services issued the seven-point Dietary Guidelines for Americans, with excessive consumption of sugar, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium steadily gaining recognition as risk factors for chronic disease. To illustrate what a healthy diet might look like at that time, the USDA, in collaboration with the US National Red Cross, introduced consumers to the “Food Wheel: A Pattern for Daily Food Choices” in 1984.

Four years later, the Food Guide was issued in pyramid form. The width of the level of the pyramid roughly indicated the proportion of food rations: at its base were bread, rice, cereals and cereals, which must have contained the largest rations; At its peak were fats and sweets, which should be consumed in moderation.

Fall of the food pyramid

But even the pyramid has been criticized because it remains too broad and vague. For example, it recommended that Americans eat 6 to 11 servings of grains, but details such as serving sizes and which specific food items within each category are considered healthier options (such as brown rice compared to white rice) remained unclear. Critics have also highlighted how it fails to take into account individual differences in nutritional requirements, such as different ages and health demographics.

To address these concerns, work began in 2003 on updating the pyramid, and two years later, a new version called MyPyramid was released. It was outfitted with ladders, intended to remind Americans of the need for exercise, and its food sections were turned sideways, in bands of different colors to represent different food groups: orange for grains, green for vegetables, red for fruits, yellow for oils, blue for milk, and purple for beans and meat.

In 2011, the United States abandoned the food pyramid in favor of what it called MyPlate, which used a plate to represent what the average person should eat according to the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Tom Vilsack, then Secretary of Agriculture, called MyPlate “a simple, visual, research-based icon that is a clear, unambiguous message about portion size.”

MyPlate’s recommendations are easy to follow: Half your plate should be fruits and vegetables, and about a quarter should be grains and protein. A smaller plate on the side was reserved for dairy products. The goal, as presented by then-First Lady Michelle Obama, was to make the American plate look like the one shown in the MyPlate graphic.

Possible return to the food pyramid

Details about what the new dietary guidelines will look like are still being discussed, Bloomberg reports.

Kennedy, who as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services oversees nutrition standards, has publicly advocated against ultra-processed foods, which he claims are “poisoning” Americans, and blames such products for causing chronic disease and rising national obesity rates.

But Kennedy also promoted misinformation about food. He has spoken out against seed oils such as canola and soybean, although experts have touted their health benefits and endorsed tallow as an alternative. He has also embraced raw milk, even though food safety experts have warned of the high risk of foodborne illness from consuming it.

The upcoming guidelines have caused concern among nutrition experts, given Kennedy’s beliefs. At an event in Colorado in July, Kennedy said the guidelines would “emphasize the need to eat saturated fats” linked to health risks. That same month, Kennedy also promoted full-fat dairy products, criticizing what he called “the attack on whole milk, cheese, and yogurt” when he announced his sweeping overhaul of the nation’s dietary guidelines.