The federal government has been making recommendations on what we should eat since 1980. Since 1992, those recommendations have been visually summarized in the form of a pyramid.

The problem: Ever since the Food Pyramid was published, Americans have been getting progressively fatter. Trump administration officials think they know why: We have been getting bad advice. So, the administration has produced an “inverted pyramid,” making recommendations that in many cases are the exact opposite of the previous ones.

For example, instead of being told to limit the consumption of fat and eat carbs, we are now told to eat fat and limit our carbs.

Reporters and commentators have treated the new guidelines as a revolutionary challenge to previous expert opinion. “New guidance ignores some longstanding advice,” said the Associated Press. The “guidelines diverged from the view of public-health experts,” said The Wall Street Journal. “A striking reversal of past nutrition guidance,” said The New York Times.

What few people seem to know is that “experts” have been arguing about food for over a century and a half.

In 1863, London undertaker William Banting........

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