★The American Kitchen Project Enroll →
A 30-Day Program · Cohorts of 200
By Helene Leeds, MS

Cook
the New
Pyramid.

America has a new federal food pyramid. Most families do not know how to cook it on a Tuesday at 7pm. Thirty years of culinary medicine, distilled into a 30-day program for households that need clarity, not another diet.

Length
30 Days
Format
Pre-Recorded
From
$97
★
5 Million
Kitchens
By 2030
01
The Slow Emergency
The country is sick.
The kitchen is where this changes.

On January 7, 2026, the United States government released the most consequential food guidance in decades. For the first time, the federal Dietary Guidelines explicitly named highly processed food as a category to avoid, set a protein target of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, and reorganized the food pyramid around three categories.

The guidance is sound. The pyramid is correct. The problem is the kitchen at 7pm on Tuesday.

That is what Cook the New Pyramid solves.

76.4%
of U.S. adults have at least one chronic condition
CDC PCD 22:240539
90%
of health spending goes to chronic disease
CDC, Aug 2025
1 in 5
American children meets the threshold for obesity
CDC NHANES
55%
of daily calories from ultra-processed foods
NCHS Data Brief 536
02
Who This Is For
Built for the
working middle.

If any of these are you, Cook the New Pyramid was built for you. No diet vocabulary. No purity tests. No expensive ingredients. No coastal aesthetics.

Working parents with 30 minutes for dinner
Two-job households on drive-throughs
Single mothers stretching a food budget
SNAP recipients feeding small children
Pregnant women trying to eat well
Families with picky eaters
Households with a new chronic diagnosis
Anyone tired of contradictory nutrition advice
03
What You Build
Six measurable
outcomes by Day 30.

No before-and-after photographs. No weight-loss claims. Six things you can verify in your own kitchen.

01 / Default
Your family cooks from the three new federal categories on most nights, without thinking about it.
02 / Pantry
Your pantry has been triaged and restocked once. You know what stays, what goes, and why.
03 / Recipes
You have 8 to 12 staple recipes that every member of your household will actually eat.
04 / Grocery
Your grocery run takes 30 minutes or less. Same store, faster cart, smaller bill.
05 / Drive-Through
DoorDash and drive-through nights are cut in half or more. Self-reported, not aspirational.
06 / Protein
You hit the federal protein target most days, on whatever budget you are working with.
04
The 30 Days
Sixteen modules.
Four live calls. One week
at a time.
Pre-Week
Orientation
  • The new pyramid in plain English. What changed and why it matters.
  • The Pantry Diagnostic: keep, phase out, replace.
  • The Real Food Shopping Guide, organized by the three categories.
  • The eight pieces of kitchen equipment that actually matter. Most households already own six.
Week 1
Protein,
Dairy & Fats
  • The 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg target, translated to plates instead of grams.
  • Animal protein, done simply. Three 15-minute proteins on rotation.
  • Plant proteins that pull weight. How to stretch a SNAP dollar.
  • Healthy fats from whole foods. The seed-oil swap, ranked by impact.
  • Live group call: questions plus a 20-minute kitchen demo.
Week 2
Vegetables
& Fruits
  • Three servings of vegetables, two of fruit a day. What a serving actually looks like.
  • The ten-minute vegetable, ten ways. Roast, sauté, raw, batch.
  • Picky eaters and the "no-thank-you bite" framework.
  • Frozen, canned, dried. When they count and when they do not.
  • Live group call.
Week 3
Whole Grains
& the Plate
  • Two to four servings of whole grains a day. What counts, what does not.
  • Five grain bases that hold a week. Oats, brown rice, quinoa, barley, whole-wheat pasta.
  • Building the plate from the three categories without recipes.
  • The 30-minute grocery run. List template, store layout, what to skip.
  • Live group call.
Week 4
Implementation
  • Your weekly rhythm. Three anchor meals, two flex meals, two leftover nights.
  • Eating out and the drive-through swap. A realistic plan for households using DoorDash four nights a week.
  • Condition-specific short videos: pregnancy, lactation, picky eaters, SNAP budgets, college kitchens.
  • Day 30: your default kitchen. A written 90-day plan you walk out with.
  • Live graduation call.
05
Who Built This
A 30-year practitioner.
The work is the proof.
Helene Leeds, MS, holding a plate of real food
"I have watched this pattern repeat in thousands of kitchens. The plan is sound. The follow-through collapses on Tuesday. The problem is the kitchen."

Helene Leeds is a culinary medicine and lifestyle medicine practitioner with thirty years of clinical and curriculum experience. She built the culinary medicine curriculum at the Hippocrates Wellness Institute, designed lifestyle medicine programming at the University of Maryland, and created the Weston A. Price Foundation Culinary Institute.

Through those institutional builds, she has trained more than 1,000 wellness professionals across 63 countries. She holds an MS in Nutrition with certificates in Nutritional Psychology, and master-level training in ontological coaching. Her European formation included language study at the Sorbonne and the University of Fribourg and a decade living in Switzerland. She has studied international culinary healing traditions across Germany, France, Switzerland, Greece, Japan, China, and North America. She was a Forbes Coaches Council member from 2020 to 2024, a finalist on MasterChef Season 3 (FOX), and is Iyengar Yoga trained in the rare Ali Dashti lineage.

She built Cook the New Pyramid because the new federal Dietary Guidelines are right, and because nobody else is teaching families how to actually cook them.

The Practitioner
Cook the New Pyramid · 2026
06
Enroll
Three tiers. Pick the
one that fits your kitchen.

All three include lifetime access to the 16 modules, the Pantry Diagnostic, the Real Food Shopping Guide, and every update we make to the program. Choose the level of live support you need.

★ Tier 01
Self-Study
Work at your own pace.
$97
One-time, no subscription.
  • 16 pre-recorded video modules
  • Pre-Week Pantry Diagnostic and Shopping Guide
  • Family-tested recipes built around the three categories
  • 30-minute grocery list template
  • Lifetime access; rewatch any time
Enroll Self-Study
Most Chosen
★ Tier 02
Implementation
For families who want accountability.
$197
One-time, no subscription.
  • Everything in Self-Study
  • Four 60-minute live group Q&A and demo calls
  • All calls recorded for replay
  • Private community space, moderated daily
  • Weekly office-hours replay archive
Enroll Implementation
★ Tier 03
Family Track
10 spots per cohort.
$497
One-time, capped at 10.
  • Everything in Implementation
  • One private 45-minute consultation with Helene
  • A custom 7-day household meal map
  • Two follow-up email check-ins during the 30 days
  • Priority access to the next cohort
Enroll Family Track

May be HSA/FSA eligible with a Letter of Medical Necessity through Truemed. If you qualify, you can save up to 30%. Tax savings vary.

A 14-day, no-questions-asked guarantee.

Enroll in any tier. If within 14 days the program is not what you needed, write to heleneleeds@gmail.com and we will refund you. No interrogation. No retention attempts. We would rather you spend $97 to $497 somewhere else than feel stuck.

07
Program Questions
The quick answers
about how this runs.

Program-mechanic questions answered here. For the long-form questions about ultra-processed food, dietary patterns, medical conditions, and family logistics, the full FAQ lives on the main page.

How much time per week?

Three to five hours a week, including viewing and cooking. Modules are 8 to 15 minutes. Live calls are 60 minutes and recorded for replay.

When does the next cohort start?

Cohorts open quarterly. Once you enroll, you receive cohort dates and a Pre-Week packet. Self-Study members can start any time; live calls and community access are tied to cohort dates.

What is the difference between the three tiers?

Self-Study ($97): All 16 modules, the Pantry Diagnostic, the Shopping Guide, recipes, lifetime access. No live calls.

Implementation ($197): Everything in Self-Study, plus four live group calls (recorded), moderated community, weekly office-hours replays.

Family Track ($497): Everything in Implementation, plus a private 45-minute consultation with Helene, a custom 7-day household meal map, and two email check-ins. 10 spots per cohort.

Is there a refund policy?

Yes. 14-day, no-questions-asked. Write to heleneleeds@gmail.com if within 14 days the program is not what you needed.

Can I use HSA or FSA funds?

May be HSA/FSA eligible with a Letter of Medical Necessity through Truemed. If you qualify, you can save up to 30 percent. Eligibility is determined by independent licensed practitioners through Truemed, not by us. Tax savings vary by individual situation.

How long do I have access?

Lifetime, on all three tiers. Modules, recipes, and updates remain available as long as the program exists. Community and live-call access for Implementation and Family Track are tied to your cohort.

What technology do I need?

A phone or computer with internet. Videos stream from any device. PDFs print or save. The community is web-based. No app required.

More questions?

The full FAQ covering ultra-processed food, vegetarian and vegan adaptation, medical conditions (diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease, autoimmune, pregnancy), family logistics, picky eaters, SNAP budgets, and the science behind the program is on the main page. Or write to heleneleeds@gmail.com.

Cook the new pyramid.
Thirty days. Start today.

If you have read this far, Cook the New Pyramid was built for you. The next cohort opens soon. Enroll at the tier that fits your household and we will see you on Day 1.

See the Three Tiers →