In addition to their “US-Style” or omnivorous eating pattern, the new 2015 Dietary Guidelines recommend a Vegetarian Pattern, and even a Vegan Pattern of eating. They note that these patterns are higher in calcium (even though they contain no dairy food) and fiber than the US-Style Pattern:
Appendix 5. USDA Food Patterns: Healthy Vegetarian Eating Pattern
To achieve these plant-based eating patterns, they say to simply remove animal foods and replace them with beans, nuts and seeds, and whole grains.
Based on a comparison of the food choices of vegetarians to nonvegetarians in NHANES, amounts of soy products (particularly tofu and other processed soy products), legumes, nuts and seeds, and whole grains were increased, and meat, poultry, and seafood were eliminated. … This Pattern can be vegan if all dairy choices are comprised of fortified soy beverages (soymilk) or other plant-based dairy substitutes.
You don’t have to eat soy. Soy beans are just beans. You can eat any other bean, pea, or legume in their place.
Good for them! Good for us!
Fanatic Cook 
About time!!!! Hooray!
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“They note that these patterns are higher in calcium (even though they contain no dairy food) and fiber…”
But check out Appendix 11 — Food Sources of Calcium. http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendix-11/
#1 is processed, fortified, breakfast cereal and 98% of the rest of the list are dairy products! (Processed cheeses???)
Oh look, there is “mustard spinach” way down the list. I guess the dozens of greens and other vegetables just aren’t profitable enough, even though they contain more calcium than chocolate milk. Are you kidding me? Chocolate milk? It’s just too sad.
The USDA should be ashamed if not outright disbanded. They are playing with people’s lives.
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I hear you, Julian. I hear your concern for people and your frustration with the USDA.
I’ve wasted a lot of energy in my life entertaining my anger, including my anger at these things. Nowadays, I’m more angry at that waste than I am about the thing that made me angry in the first place!
About these guidelines, I’m choosing to see the good. Or, what I believe as good. I know there are people who disagree with me. I think it’s good that the USDA has recognized vegetarian and vegan diets. I think it’s good that they say we should eat as little cholesterol as possible and that we overconsume saturated fat. Those terms, cholesterol and saturated fat, are euphemisms for animal food. In effect, they are saying Americans eat too much animal food and should eat less. To me, that’s good.
I think people are smart. I think they can see through USDA’s promotion of factory farms and industrial agriculture.
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