Oldways is a nonprofit organization whose mission is health, food, nutrition and education. It collaborated with the WHO (World Health Organization) and the HSPH (Harvard School of Public Health).

The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid was an alternative to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) food pyramid, that was very much questioned.

The USDA released its Food Guide Pyramid in 1992, in the middle of a big controversy. The model did not appear for almost twelve years. The scientific area and industry leaders had different and opposed opinions against My Pyramid. The first ones insisted that the Guide should be brought out as it had been created. The food sector ruling people, on the contrary, believed that the model would harm severely their commercial interest, promoting restrictions in carbohydratesand fat. Finally, a corrected and amended version came to light, but the project was at this point mortally wounded.

Luise Light, one insider designer of the original version of the Food Guide Pyramid reported that the original one was much higher in fruit and vegetables than the released one.