The Inverted Pyramid of Authority—Why Government Nutrition Advice Deserves Less, Not More, Trust

Jeffrey A. Singer, Terence Kealey, and Bautista Vivanco

Since the publication of three books — Gary Taubes’s Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007), Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food (2008), and Nina Teicholz’s Big Fat Surprise (2014) — it has become common to joke that there’s nothing wrong with the standard food pyramid as long as you turn it upside down.

The traditional pyramid placed carbohydrates such as bread and rice at the bottom (meaning they should be our staples), with protein foods halfway up...