Fact Check: Is the Food Pyramid's 'lucky charms are better than steak' claim true? Joe Rogan's IG post explored

Popular UFC commentator Joe Rogan recently criticized the food pyramid and the information provided by expert nutritionists as they claimed that Lucky Charms, the cereal, is healthier than steak. Posting the Good Rangers message on Instagram, Rogan added the food chart and said:

“Thanks to the large collection of legitimate nutrition experts with independent shows distributing information based on solid research, we know this is bullsh*t. Complete, undeniable, indefensible bullsh*t. But yet this government-funded recommendation chart is here to let you know they suck at giving food advice too.”

The chart showed items like watermelon, kale, dates, and frosted walnuts among other food items on the “to be encouraged” list. On the other hand, items like chips, poached eggs, whole milk, and lucky charms were on the “to be moderated” list, and whole eggs fried in butter, cheddar cheese, and ground beef was on the red “to be minimized” list.

Apart from Joe’s Instagram, the same chart was published on the Good Ranchers website, where they challenged the “healthfulness” score of Lucky Charms as compared to ground beef. But, on several searches, no such health chart or food pyramid was found online on any government website.

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Lucky Charms healthier than beef debate explored as Ty Beal revealed that a US Food Pyramid no longer exists

While recent claims by social media users and celebrities like Joe Rogan use a particular food pyramid that shows Lucky Charms to be a healthier alternative than beef, the food pyramid is not funded by the US government. In fact, the one that was funded was scrapped by the authorities 12 years ago, in 2011. The concept was replaced by MyPlate.

The same was revealed by Ty Beal, the global nutrition scientist, who posted on Twitter and shared more insights on how there is no study to create a food pyramid. The scientific paper includes a study that rates the healthfulness of food.

The data presented in the article by Good Rangers states that the data presented in the food pyramid was pulled by a few nutrition scientists, however, upon several searches, a similar food pyramid was found in a research paper presented by a few researchers, who through their paper questioned and talked about the Limitations of the Food Compass Nutrient Profiling System.

A research paper by a few researchers had the food pyramid which is in the news these days. (Image via Socarxiv)

Ty Beal, who is one of the contributors to the research paper, refuted the claims, which debunked the news of Lucky Charms being healthier than ground beef. In a number of follow-up tweets, Ty also talked about the Food Compass and how it encourages people to consume foods that can be unhealthy, like frozen yogurt, chocolate-covered almonds, etc. His tweet read:

“It is true that Food Compass says to encourage consumption of some foods that may be considered unhealthy, such as nonfat frozen yogurt, chocolate-covered almonds, and frosted mini wheat, as well as other ultra-processed foods. And to limit consumption of some minimally processed animal source foods that may be considered healthy, such as ground beef.”

He further stated how the Food Compass would generally promote the consumption of healthier food items, and not junk food like donuts and other processed food items.

Hence, the food pyramid chart posted by Joe Rogan and Good Ranchers that claims that the Food Pyramid states that Lucky Charms are healthier than steaks is just from a research paper by some researchers and is not presented by the US government.