The United States Department of Agriculture ’s food guide Pyramids of Egypt and its successor , MyPyramid , have been helping Americans make healthy , balanced dietetic decisions since 1992 . Things have n’t always been so triangular on the dietetic front , though .
Long before we started getting our eat pointers in pyramid form , there was a much more circular way to design our computer menu : the USDA ’s Basic 7 roulette wheel . As you ’ll notice , things are just a teeny-weeny bit unlike in this early rendering . Butter and bastioned oleo are no longer thought of as one of the basic food chemical group , and it ’s potential that very few modern USDA posters have the idiom " Eat Any Other Foods You Want . "
So what throw with this eldritch - looking chart ? Is it some sort of hoax ? Not at all . It ’s a fascinating souvenir from World War II . At the aurora of the big clash , Americans were n’t facing an obesity crisis . or else , they had the complete opposite trouble : they were undernourished !
With the U.S. on the verge of entering the war in 1941 , a Selective Service study of a million potential soldier uncover a troubling fact : About one in seven likely nominee for military service suffered from " handicap straight or indirectly refer to alimentation . " Americans just were n’t rust the right solid food to keep their motor lean .
eat powerful receive even trickier when the U.S. actually entered the warfare . Widespread rationing made finding a square repast problematical than ever , so in April 1943 the USDA rolled out this " Basic 7 " design that would help keep civilians sufficiently nourished to keep the warfare exploit going . In addition to placard like this , USDA workers traveled the land giving demonstrations on how to work the Basic 7 into a rationed diet .
Even after the war end , the Basic 7 plan hung around until 1956 , when it was replaced by a simplified " Basic Four " design that advocated eating vegetable and fruit , meat , milk , and cereals and breads each day . The modern food Pyramids of Egypt we all have sex did n’t catch on until 1992 .
