Magically nutritious? Joe Rogan’s misleading post about guidelines for Lucky Charms and steak

Podcast host Joe Rogan shared an Instagram image suggesting that the federal government declared a sugary cereal healthier than meat.

The headline stated:

"New government-funded 'food pyramid' says Lucky Charms are healthier than steak."

Rogan, host of Spotify’s most popular podcast, aired his disapproval in the caption: "Thanks to the large collection of legitimate nutrition experts with independent shows distributing information based on solid research, we know this is bull----."

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The image is not a food pyramid, which was a U.S. Agriculture Department guide on how much to eat each day from five major food groups, but has since been replaced. And the image was not created to promote Lucky Charms over steak.

Rather, private researchers created the image to caution that a food healthfulness system that ranked Lucky Charms over ground beef should not be used. The system was created with some government funding.

Rogan shared a two-panel image. Both panels came from a blog post by Good Ranchers, a Texas company that sells meat it says comes from independent American farms. 

The first panel showed bits of marshmallow-heavy Lucky Charms. The second panel ranked two dozen foods using numerical scores. 

Lucky Charms landed in the middle and was labeled "to be moderated." Steak wasn’t listed, but ground beef appeared at the bottom, labeled "to be minimized."

Watermelon and kale topped the chart. But Frosted Mini Wheats cereal ranked third and it, along with Honey Nut Cheerios cereal, were labeled "to be encouraged." 

The Good Ranchers blog post links to a February research paper from several nutritionists.

The paper evaluated Food Compass, a system for ranking the healthfulness of foods. The system was developed by researchers at Tufts University in Massachusetts and unveiled in October 2021. 

Tufts’ "nutrient profiling system" ranks foods on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 the most healthful. The system considers a food’s healthful and harmful effects, identifying things such as nutrients, ingredients and processing characteristics.

With this system, a sugary, processed cereal such as Lucky Charms scored higher than ground beef.

The researchers Good Ranchers cited criticized Tufts’ Food Compass system.

The research paper didn’t specify why the cereal ranked higher. But it said Food Compass’ method exaggerates the risks associated with animal-source foods and underestimates the risks of "ultraprocessed foods."

"While a conceptually impressive effort, we propose that the chosen algorithm is not well justified and produces results that fail to discriminate for common shortfall nutrients, exaggerate the risks associated with animal-source food and underestimate the risks associated with ultra-processed foods," the paper said. "We caution against the use of Food Compass in its current form to inform consumer choices, policies, programs, industry reformulations, and investment decisions."

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One of the paper’s authors, global nutrition scientist Ty Beal, told PolitiFact the chart "was made by us to show flaws in the system, using values from" Food Compass.

Beal wrote on Twitter: "I have seen a lot of attacking of Tufts University and the researchers involved. I am confident they all care deeply about improving people’s health and nutrition. I just think there are some blind spots and the system has flaws."

The Tufts researchers responded to criticism on the Food Compass webpage:

"Food Compass works very well, on average, across thousands of food and beverage products. But, when this number and diversity of products are scored, there are always some exceptions. … But, as objective scientists, we accept constructive criticism and are using this to further improve Food Compass."

Food Compass’ development was funded partly by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a unit of the federal National Institutes of Health. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute told PolitiFact that its funding for Food Compass was $8.7 million and that the National Institutes of Health has no plans for using Food Compass.

Food Compass "expands upon existing rating systems" and its developers "were prudent in noting the limitations of the tool," the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute said.

Dietary guidelines from the Agriculture Department include "meeting food group needs with nutrient-dense foods and beverages, and stay within calorie limits," and limiting foods and beverages higher in added sugars, saturated fat and sodium.

Rogan on Instagram shared an image that stated: "New government-funded 'food pyramid' says Lucky Charms are healthier than steak."

The image is not a food pyramid, which was a government guide on healthy eating. 

The image showed data from a food healthfulness system that ranked Lucky Charms cereal as  healthier than ground beef. Tufts University developed the system with partial funding from a federal agency.

The image was created by other nutrition researchers to illustrate why they believed the system should not be used by consumers or for food policy. 

The image Rogan shared contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.