In 1970s Sweden, food prices were rising fast. A test-kitchen manager turned the government's advice into a triangle — and the picture went around the world.
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Ten items. Say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Read the sentence, guess the meaning of the word in bold, then reveal.
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One missing word fits every phrase in the group. Say it, then reveal.
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In 1972, food prices in Sweden were rising fast. In Skärholmen, a suburb of Stockholm, a group of women protested with a simple demand: Vi vill ha billigare mat — “We want cheaper food.” Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare set up a working group to look at food and what it cost.
The Board's idea was to divide food into two kinds. Basic foods — cheap and nutritious, like bread, potatoes, pasta and milk — should make up most of what people ate. Supplementary foods, such as fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and eggs, added what the basic foods lacked.
Anna-Britt Agnsäter ran the test kitchen of KF, Sweden's large cooperative retail group, from 1946 to 1980. She needed a clearer way to show the Board's advice to ordinary shoppers. In 1973, during a talk at a conference in Gothenburg, the idea of a triangle was suggested by Fjalar Clemes.
1. Why did the women of Skärholmen protest?
2. What was the difference between basic and supplementary foods?
3. Who suggested the triangle, and where?
1. Food prices were rising fast; they wanted cheaper food.
2. Basic foods were cheap and nutritious and should be most of the diet; supplementary foods added what the basic foods lacked.
3. Fjalar Clemes, at a conference in Gothenburg in 1973.
The first food pyramid was published in September 1974 in Vi, KF's magazine, for the cooperative's 75th anniversary. Readers were told (translated from Swedish): “Tear out the food pyramid on the next page — it makes it easier to eat right.”
At the wide base were the basic foods: milk, cheese, margarine, bread, cereals and potatoes. In the middle came vegetables and fruit. At the narrow top: meat, fish and eggs. According to Vi, meat was at the top not because it was dangerous, but because it was expensive.
Surprisingly, the National Board of Health and Welfare was against the pyramid. But the picture was too useful to stop. It spread to the other Nordic countries and then much further — to Japan, Sri Lanka and the United States.
1. Where and when was the first pyramid published?
2. What was at the top, and why, according to Vi?
3. How did the National Board react?
1. In KF's magazine Vi, in September 1974.
2. Meat, fish and eggs — meat because it was expensive, not because it was dangerous.
3. It was against it.
In the United States, the Department of Agriculture prepared an “Eating Right Pyramid”, ready for publication in 1991. In April that year, the Agriculture Secretary, Edward Madigan, stopped it. Officially, it had not been tested properly and might confuse children. Critics said the real reason was pressure from the meat and dairy industries.
After about a million dollars of extra testing, the Food Guide Pyramid was published in 1992. It lasted until 2005, when it was replaced by MyPyramid; in 2011 that gave way to MyPlate, a simple plate divided into food groups. A common criticism of the pyramids was that they put very different protein foods into one group, as if they were all the same.
In January 2026, the US government brought the pyramid back — upside down, with proteins, fats and full-fat dairy in the wide part at the top. Health groups called it a mixed bag. More than fifty years after a Swedish test kitchen drew a triangle to save families money, people are still arguing about what belongs where.
1. Why was the 1991 pyramid stopped — officially, and according to critics?
2. What replaced the pyramid in 2011?
3. What was different about the 2026 version?
1. Officially: it hadn't been tested properly and might confuse children. Critics: pressure from the meat and dairy industries.
2. MyPlate.
3. It was upside down, with proteins, fats and full-fat dairy in the wide part at the top.
The pyramid shows proportions: the wider the layer, the more of your food should come from it. This is the original Swedish version of 1974.
Here are six foods. In the 1974 Swedish pyramid, which layer would each one belong to?
1. Base — cereals and milk were cheap basic foods.
2. Top — eggs were in the top layer, with meat and fish.
3. Middle — vegetables were the middle layer.
4. Base — potatoes and margarine were both basic foods.
5. Top — fish sat at the top with meat and eggs.
6. Middle — fruit was in the middle layer.
One shape for everyone. Children, athletes and older people do not need the same diet.
Groups hide differences. Very different foods can share a layer, though their effects on health are not the same.
Money and politics get in. The Swedish pyramid was partly about price; the American one was fought over by industries — and the advice keeps changing.
A food guide is advice in the form of a picture. English has several ways of giving advice — and they are not all equally strong.
Complete each sentence with should, ought, 'd better or best.
1. You not drink that milk — it's two weeks past its date!
2. Most doctors agree that we eat less sugar.
3. It's to read the label before you buy.
4. Children to have a proper breakfast before school.
5. Hurry up — we leave now, or the shop will be closed.
1. 'd better (a warning)
2. should
3. best
4. ought
5. 'd better (or should)
Read each situation and give advice, starting with the words given. Possible answers are shown.
1. Your friend eats takeaway pizza every night. → You really should
2. Your brother is about to eat chicken that has been out of the fridge all day. → You'd better not
3. A visitor wants to buy vegetables cheaply in your town. → It's best to
4. Your colleague always skips lunch and gets headaches. → You ought to
1. …cook at home more often.
2. …eat that — you might get ill.
3. …go to the market late in the day.
4. …take a proper break and eat something.
Now give your teacher three pieces of food advice — one with should, one with had better and one with it's best to — and say how strong each one is.
Talk about food, money and advice. Choose a task, start the timer, and talk.
Describe the pyramid of what you really eat in a normal week. What's at the base? What's at the top?
A student has very little money. Advise them how to eat well — use the pyramid and today's grammar.
Should governments tell people what to eat? Argue one side, then the other.