Following new USDA food pyramid would raise grocery bills by nearly one-third

[chowmama]

11. The wannabe 'machos' keep wanting to pretend that we're carnivores.

No, we evolved to be omnivores. We're not big cats. Americans eat too much meat already; healthier cultures use less meat and add protein from other sources, grains (especially whole grains), vegetables and fruits. You know - balance.

The problem is that we've taken all the good stuff out of our grain products by refining them, and added fat, sugar and salt to everything across the board to replace the flavor and nutrients that we've removed from them in order to have products that are cheaper to produce.

The result is that the American palate is rigged to prefer a diet that's high in fat, salt and sugar. Even our produce is bred to be increasingly sweet at the expense of all the other flavors that were once there. A woman in a singing trio I was in was going on about a terrific new variety of apple. She finally came out with "It's so sweet. If I was blindfolded, I wouldn't even know I was eating an apple!" For her, this was a selling point.

No, thanks. I'm an omnivore and I'm going to stay that way. And if you're a 'wannabe' anything, it's an admission that you ain't.