Safe and Healthier

A majority of the posts on this blog are about health issues and our diet. We have described the problem with the current Standard American Diet, which is SAD. For example, this post (Natural Law – Food $ vs Health Care $) gives an easy visual of how the money you spend on food will directly correlate to the money you spend on Health Care. Real food is real medicine. Highly processed, food-like substances are poison.

REALFOOD.GOV

Shall we celebrate the new “Official Website Of The United States Government”, REALFOOD.GOV? Just a couple of months ago, in a post titled “Safe BUT Unhealthy“, we looked at the USDA’s previous “healthy” food plan called the “MyPlate Plan”. Following the guidance from the old “MyPlate Plan”, Doug’s suggested plate resulted in a diet that would squarely put him in a “FAT GAIN” metabolic state. The MyPlate Plan was recommending too much ENERGY in the form of processed carbohydrates. Excess carbohydrates are converted and stored as FAT in our bodies. In this post, Doug repeats the same process using the newly released “Daily Servings Guide” from the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines.

USDA Dietary Guidelines – What Changed?

The chart below shows the change for Doug’s daily recommended 2,600-calorie diet. The top part of the chart is the old 2020-2025 guidelines comparing the 2025-2030 guidelines on the bottom portion of the chart..

A few key changes to the new guidelines:

• Now we should only include “WHOLE GRAINS”, not just “Make half your grains whole”.
• For Doug, I can increase my daily protein from 6.5 oz. to ~ 12 oz.
  • WOW I get to basically DOUBLE my daily PROTEIN intake.
• I am now allowed to drink WHOLE (FAT) Milk, thank you very much, raw milk it is!
• Be sure to include some BUTTER in your diet.
  • Your lower intestines actually make butyric acid (butter), so it must be good for you.
  • Save your body some processing time and eat your butyric acid (butter).

American Dietary Changes – Protein to Energy Ratio (P:E Ratio)

As a grassfed beef producer, we know a little about P:E Ratio. The challenge to produce flavorful grassfed beef is to get healthy grass “FAT” stored on the animal, specifically intramuscular fat. Grass contains all 3 macro nutrients, Carbohydrates (sugar), Protein, and Fat (lipids). Our challenge in growing high-quality pasture is not the Protein content, it is the sugars and lipids that we are challenged in growing. Cattle eating low sugar (carbohydrate) grasses will have a HIGH P:E Ratio diet. This means FAT LOSS, skinny, tough, poor-tasting meat. Mammals cannot get FAT on a HIGH Protein to Energy ratio diet, just look at a Lion, ever see a fat lion? That is why we finish our grassfed beef on summer pastures. These pastures have the highest sugar (carbohydrates) content from photosynthesis. Summer pastures have a LOW P:E Ratio, which results in FAT GAIN.

We are not cattle, we are not lions, but we are mammals. The basic metabolic process of Protein to Energy Ratio holds true for us. If we consume a high calorie LOW Protein to Energy (Carbs & Fat) Ratio diet, we will gain FAT. Excess energy is stored in our bodies as FAT. This follows the basic laws of thermodynamics. With that said, we are all a little different. God made us unique, so it is possible that somewhere there is a fat lion, or someone with a high metabolism may not get fat on a high-carb diet (LOW Protein to Energy).

P:E Percent Calculator – Old vs. New Guidelines

Doug previously followed the old My Plate guidelines (Nov. 2025), choosing food items that he thought he could stick with. The result was a daily intake Protein:Energy of 0.28, putting his My Plate diet squarely in FAT GAIN zone (refer to the RED arrow in the chart).

Using the new REALFOOD.gov guidelines, he again tried choosing food items that he thought he could stick with over time. The result was a daily intake P:E of 0.54 (26.4% Protein, 43.7% Fat, 29.9% Carbohydrates). This is almost a two-time increase (higher) P:E Ratio. This moves his recommended daily diet from “FAT GAIN” towards “FAT LOSS” (refer to the GREEN arrow in the chart).

P:E Chart – Old MyPlate vs. Realfood.gov

During the first part of December 2025, Doug logged actual food intake with MYFOODDATA for three days. These three days seemed to represent a sustainable diet, one that he could keep. The result was a P:E of 0.64 (refer to the PURPLE arrow in the chart). The average Calorie intake was about 2,400. This appears to be a diet that will maintain his current weight, that according to his doctor, is ideal for his activity level and age.

Will Americans Adopt The New Realfood.gov Guidelines?

For the most part, it seems Americans follow recommendations. I bought into the old Guidelines and tried to follow them. Unfortunately, the old guidelines failed me, and I started to question why. Based on my own research, I found the wise traditions around farming and eating at the Weston A Price Foundation.

Curious to explore your current diet? Do your own research? Check out the P:E Percent Calculator. Scroll below the calculator to search for food items to add up Protein, Fat, and Carb totals for your diet. Use the Nutrition Facts Search Tool for more detailed analysis of each food item.