I am skeptical that the food pyramid has anything to do with what you call the &quot;modern diet&quot;. What seems to be happening is that food is cheaper and more diverse than ever before. This appears to be a byproduct of technological progress and trade, not some government chart.<p>Fortunately, almost everybody ignores the food pyramid. They just interpret it as &quot;oh, I should try to eat from all the food groups&quot;. Fine.<p>The problem with the food pyramid is that it is based on obsolete science at best, and was probably designed by food industry lobbies.