New government guidance on diet

As the son of a dietician who still enjoys studying the subject as a hobby, the updated diet recommendations from the USDA are of interest. I grew up in the "early days" of the "Four food groups", then replaced by the "Food pyramid", then replaced by "MyPlate", and now the "inverted food pyramid".  Now if you read carefully, the overall science isn't that different; there is a higher acceptance of saturated/animal fats in the diet, and a higher emphasis on protein in the diet, but overall, the guidance would be recognizable by those who founded the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (then the American Dietetic Association) in the 1920s.  

The increased emphasis on protein is welcome, in my view; I remember that even in middle school, I questioned the limit for protein sources/meats of two servings.  I've always felt that a portion of overall calories would have been more appropriate, and then the new guidance's linking of protein intake to body mass is welcome.  Perhaps it overshoots the target--it recommends, for a 215 lb guy like me, about 120-160 grams of protein, perhaps a bit excessive--but nevertheless, it is a welcome correction.

The most interesting part of the new guidance for me is that the visual guidance doesn't really indicate how many servings of each kind of food is warranted, and I'm still working through my thoughts on this.  On one hand, one of the genius things in MyPlate and the "Four Food Groups" is that it emphasized the need for a varied diet, but on the other side, if you're eating whole foods, there is a fair amount of overlap in nutrition from grains, tubers, legumes, vegetables, fruits, meats, and dairy.  As my brother said once to me, every food we eat has exactly what was needed for that plant, seed, or animal to preserve or create life, and our nutritional needs are not as different from that of cabbage, corn, or cows as we might like to think, and perhaps it's not as important that we emphasize some food groups over others.

But all that noted, I think that the benefits and risks to this will be muted, because in my view, the big problem we've got in our country is massive subsidies for corn, dairy, and sugar.  Because of these, meats, fried foods, starches, and sugars--which are "eating triggers" in pretty much every place I can think of--are cheaper than they otherwise would be, and real foods are more expensive.  That, along with an increasingly sedentary society, are the big drivers of our obesity related diseases.