It's interesting that USDA food pyramid is constantly blamed for the misguided low-fat fad (for which it deserves some of the blame), but it gets no credit for putting
equal emphasis on limiting added sugars. Is it USDA's fault that low-fat became a national obsession while its recommendation to use added sugars sparingly was virtually ignored? I think a lot of it was the mass media. For at least a couple decades, they were constantly preaching about fat, but never said much about sugar until the last several years.
IMO, excessive added sugars in the American diet is really what got us to this point. From what I've read, eating complex carbs in moderation is completely compatible with good health (with the exception of people who need to watch glycemic load, such as diabetics, and even they can often eat a moderate level of carbs without harm).
Edit: Googling this a little more, I discovered the following - here's the 1992 USDA pamphlet. They were recommending
no more than 30% of fat from calories, which is perhaps lower than it needed to be, but not excessively low:
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/publication...gppamphlet.pdf
The USDA was using the same recommendation in 1984.
IMO, the USDA's greatest failure in this regard was not differentiating much between good fats and bad fats, but I'm not sure the science was there back then anyway. I'll be doing a little more reading on that....