[PaulDavisThe1st]

> The downside of beef isn't the "density" of nutrients: the downside is high saturated fat.

There are other downsides to beef .. such as the batshit crazy use of ecosystems and resources required to produce it at industrial scale.

Got a (beef) cow roaming in your yard, somehow getting by on whatever grows out of the ground? Enjoy your steak! Generating 6x the calories via a water-intensive cover crop to feed the cow so you can eat it later? Just say no.

[reissbaker]

This is orthogonal to nutritious eating habits; I don't think the food pyramid should lie about nutrition due to ecological concerns. (I do think the food pyramid should be a little more concerned about saturated fat than it is, though — which is why I called out chicken as an alternative, and elsewhere also mentioned fish.)