Jolie on The New Food Pyramid

America just flipped its food pyramid upside down — and for the first time in decades, it finally reflects real metabolic science. But if we want true anti-aging, disease resistance, and vibrant longevity, protein alone isn’t enough — we need to build our bodies on plants first. In this episode, I show you how to reinterpret the new guidelines through the Jolie lens to create a food pyramid that heals, fuels, and keeps you young.

Transcript

Hi everyone. This is Julia from Jolie. This is our Julie Life podcast, and I wanted to touch on the major changes that happened in the US food pyramid, which I am excited about. I'm excited about because on a broad stroke level, it's really, really good for our health and for Americans. And I want to refine it so that not only is your understanding focused on metabolic health, which this new food pyramid really is geared toward metabolic health, but at Jolie Life, we are interested in your overall health, particularly your longevity, your vitality, and your ability to fight off disease and maintain a body that does everything that you want it to do cognitively, physically, energy-wise, all of that. And for that, we need our plants. So I want to talk about how the government replaced the MyPlate graphic that is the pyramid and basically turned it upside down where grains used to be the basis of everything.
(01:28)
Now, protein, dairy, and healthy fats form the foundation. It's the largest part. From there, we go to vegetables and fruits that are getting more emphasis than they got in the past. And at the top where it should be are the whole grains. Because Americans, we have been having our grains as the base of everything, which has led to a lot of metabolic disorder, as well as liver disease and diseases that are associated with inflammation. I will have to say that when we talk about metabolic disorder, that is a major improvement because metabolic disorder is associated with obesity, which has a whole host of conditions that goes with it. It's associated with diabetes. It is associated with cardiovascular disease, and it is associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's and dementia. So it is a very significant change that will have a huge impact on our health.
(02:36)
Just to break it down, so protein priority. The new guidelines encourage high quality nutrient-dense protein at every meal, including eggs, pulsry, seafood, and red meat. And our daily intake, the recommendation is higher and is in line with our JOLI recommendation for protein. So that's good. The concern, however, is because it says high quality protein, which if you are familiar with animal husbandry, the availability of high quality protein is quite limited in this country. Most of the protein available to us in the form of animal protein is industrially raised. And when we have industrially raised animal protein, we open ourselves to increase antibiotic consumption, increase pesticide consumption, which is in the feeds given to these animals, which then is in their muscle tissue, which then is in our body. And we're also exposing ourselves to higher levels of growth hormone, which industrially raised animals are receiving.
(03:54)
There's also not a discussion in terms of environmental impact of overfishing and the environmental impact of increased industrial animal raising. And so I think that that is very, very important, that if we are going to increase the demand for protein, animal protein specific, we also need to increase the supply of grass-fed beef, organic chicken, and fish that is responsibly and sustainably fished. But in order to do that, in addition to raising the availability of it, we also need to be able to lower the cost of it because for many people, the cost of grass-fed beef is prohibitive. The cost of organic chicken is prohibitive. And we, as Americans, as a country in general, we don't like spending a lot of money on food and high quality food costs money. So that's an important thing that we will need to consider as a country in general.
(05:04)
The other aspect of this is that I love is the encouragement of full fat dairy. So at Jolie, we're dairy-free, and I always say dairy is considered guilty until otherwise proven. Many people have dairy allergies. Many people are not aware of their dairy allergies. Clients will do Jolie programs and say, gee, my nose isn't running anymore, or I don't have postnasal drip anymore, or I'm not snoring like I used to, or my nose isn't always itchy. I'm not sneezing like I used to. Because they had a low level dairy allergy that they hadn't recognized yet. So I will put that as a caveat that dairy is guilty and to proven otherwise. But let's say you're one of these people who can consume dairy and it does not cause any allergic response to them for them, then the emphasis on full fat dairy is so helpful, so helpful from a metabolic perspective because milk is basically water, protein, fat, and sugar.
(06:17)
And for a little backup, I've covered this in other podcasts, but what slows down the absorption of sugar into our bloodstream is fiber, protein, and fat. And so as we started emphasizing skim milk, low fat milk, what was happening that we didn't realize is that we were left with water and lactose, water and sugar. Water and sugar devoid of natural fat and protein means that we are absorbing the sugar from our dairy products a lot faster, and that has a negative impact on our glucose levels, on insulin sensitivity. And for people who are pre-diabetic or diabetic, that presents a problem. So the emphasis on full fat dairy not only helps this issue, but it also increases satiety, which is important in terms of fighting obesity. So I'm thrilled about that. I'm thrilled about the emphasis on healthy fats from whole foods such as nuts and seeds and olives and avocados.
(07:34)
That is completely aligned with the Joey Life lifestyle, as well as even beef tallow. That's not something we use at Jolie, but that is a healthier fat than a commercially made fat. Our bodies know what to do with fat that is derived from animals. Our body does not know what to do with fat that is derived through chemical reactions in a factory. So the emphasis fats is good for our heart health, it's good for our overall help. Deemphasizing grains is super important from a JOLI perspective because it addresses the tux that grains put on our digestive health, our microbiome, as well as on our metabolic help because an emphasis on grains where a bagel is what we eat for breakfast, a sandwich on a big hoagie brun with some processed meat on it and mayo. And then we come home and we have chicken with potatoes or we have pasta and sauce.
(08:53)
We're giving ourselves sugar after sugar after sugar. We are wrecking our metabolic health. So this is a really, really huge step forward for American health. Now, getting to the plants, this is why I would put the plants at the base, and this is why as you interpret this food pyramid for yourself, you should put the plants at the base. Plants are your healers. Plants are your healers. Plants are not high in calories. They're not high in protein, they don't have fat in them, basically speaking except for the nuts and seeds and avocados. Plants are your healers. The reason why Julie like programs always, always, always emphasizes plants, whether you eat animal protein, rather you're vegetarian or vegan is because plants are not side dishes. They are the most powerful anti-inflammatory, detoxifying, hormone-supported microbiome building agents you have. They help your body on a cellular level, so they help your body at the grassroots.
(10:17)
Plants provide polyphenols that help to downregulate inflammation. Inflammation is a huge driver of disease. Plants contain fiber that feed your gut microbiome. All the little organisms living in your gut are fed by fiber, and fiber, as we touched on before, improves insulin sensitivity by slowing down the absorption of sugars of glucose. Plants contain minerals that support your nervous system balance and your mitochondrial health. Mitochondrial health is at the center of cellular health, and plants contain photonutrients that protect you against oxidative stress that naturally comes through all the chemical reactions that happen in your body, but the oxidative stress of living life, of pollution, of cortisol, of not having enough rest, of having to break down pharmaceuticals, all of those things. Photonutrients protect you against oxidative stress and against premature aging. Every single longevity focused population on earth from the blue zones to the Mediterranean diet rest on a plant dominant foundation.
(11:45)
Plants are so important. The only kind of exception to this are some of the blue zone communities in Alaska where most of their diet is fat, but that is an outlier for what's possible for us. But if you look at most of them, their diet is really, really centered on a plant foundation. And from the Jolie lens, from the work that we do, for the results that we get, plants are what basically determines the terrain of your body. Plants create an internal environment in which your hormones can rebalance and regulate naturally. Plants create an environment where your immune system functions better. You're able to create more immune cells. You're able to create them more quickly and more effectively. They're to be programmed with more accuracy. Plants help your skin to regenerate all your soft tissues, your tendons, your ligaments. They even help in terms of reducing the glucose load.
(12:55)
They help with bone remineralization. So plants are essential and it helps your metabolism to become more resilient as well as gut health. So the main problem with putting protein at the base is that it displaces what should be at the base, which are plants. And by displacing plants at the base, we are losing a key opportunity to amplify our health, to get the best health possible. And so I offer to you a revision of the new food pyramid as the Jolie pyramid where plants are at the base, those are your leafy grains, your herbs, your cruciferous vegetables, your colorful vegetables, where you have root vegetables at the base, squash, fermented plants, even a bigger bang for your buck, and you have fruits that are seasonal and supportive. A little plug here for fruit. A lot of people ask about fruit because it has sugar in it.
(14:09)
I dare say that eating one to two servings of fruit per day is an excellent, excellent way to handle your sugar cravings in a way that amplifies your health. And so instead of reaching for a cookie or a brownie, I suggest you reach for a piece of fruit instead of ending with a bowl of ice cream, end with a bowl of berries and you will be amazed by how much it helps you from the inside out. The next JOLI layer would be plant-forward fats, olive oil, nuts, seeds. These are important for us because these healthy fats help our hormones to balance, they help our sex hormones to balance, and they also help the integrity of our cells. We need fats, which in their base molecules, our lipids, we need those for our cell linings. We need them for taking some nutrients in and out of a cell.
(15:17)
The nutrient is brought into the cell alongside a lipid, so we need that for better absorption of some of the nutrients that we eat, and we need lipids for various reactions that happen in the body. From there, it would be our high quality protein, emphasis on high quality protein, protein that is sourced responsibly, be it fish, eggs, poultry, beef, lamb, pigs, whatever, but responsibly source that those animals are devoid of antibiotics, that they're devoid of growth hormones, that they are raised well, they are fed well, that as much care is given to what they're being fed as to how they're being raised because you are what you eat. The animal is what it eats and what it eats essentially is what you're eating. So we need to be very, very careful. At Jolie, we take a lot of time and effort and expense to get really, really high quality meat.
(16:30)
And high quality meat tastes different. It feels different. The texture is 100% different because the animal is raised differently. It is essentially, in my opinion, a completely different animal. And the cool thing about beef, for instance, is when you get grass-fed beef, you have more omega-3s, which are anti-inflammatory than you have omega-6s. But when you get industrially raised beef, guess what? That ratio is reversed and you get more pro- inflammatory omega-6 and less anti-inflammatory omega-3s. Hence, my philosophy that they're different animals and they do different things for you. So you want to be careful what the animals you eat are eating.
(17:21)
And then grains at the top. Grains, I am not anti-grain. Julie is not anti-grain. We just changed the proportions, which is what the new food pyramid is really aiming at is that Americans change how much they eat in terms of grains. And we are 100% with that. We're for whole grains. One of my favorite whole grains that I just want to highlight are oak roats. That's the whole oat before it's cut up. Grains are great. They're very satisfying. They have an emotional connection to us. They add chew and texture and all those things, so they are fabulous. It's just that we don't need as much as we used to have or we used to be recommended to eat. And also, I love that the new pyramid really emphasized the need to decrease the amount of sugar that we're eating. That will make a huge difference on our health.
(18:24)
So in summary, in general, I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. And with a few tweaks by putting plants at the bottom, at the base, then you get true nourishment. You get nourishment that regulates your body beautifully. You get nourishment that is incredibly restorative and you get nourishment that gives you everything for a long, vital life that supports longgevity and beauty. It reduces your risk of chronic disease. It honors the environment and the limits of the environment, and it allows for ethical and conscious animal consumption without excess. That is very, very, very important. And so I encourage you to start building your health from the ground up as we do at Jolie and literally the ground up, your healers coming from the earth and go with the things that are green as the base of your food pyramid. From there, add on your protein.
(19:33)
If dairy has proven itself okay for you, add in your full fat dairy, add in your nuts and seeds and avocado and olives, and garnish it with your grains and with sugars. And that is my take on the new food pyramid, and that is my blueprint for you to use to have the best health you ever have had in your life. And I guarantee you eat this way for 30 days and you are going to feel so much better than you ever have. Be disinflamed. You're going to sleep better, your digestion will be better, and you will be overall a much happier person. This is it for the Jolie Life Podcast. See you again, share it, download it, follow us, do all the things, and you can check us out at thejolife.com, and you can contact me at julia@thejulilife.com. See you soon.