The food pyramid used to be faulty, and to some degree it is still faulty, will always be somewhat faulty.  I was raised mostly in the 90’s with the idea that you should eat just grains and carbs in general a lot, it was non descript, and it put far too little focus on fruits and vegetables.  Even then, there were health teachers and health experts complaining about it, coming out against it, saying that it wasn’t the pyramid it should be. 

But since then, they have to some degree specified things, defining good and bad carbs to a larger degree and in essence educating themselves through greater education.  Many now believe that you should have more protein along with the essential sources of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and it has recently tried to reach out more to those of differing body types rather than just one, which is without question quite an improvement in general. 

They are still obviously doing more research into what makes things effective and what will give you greater results.  And to be quite honest, the food pyramid still has a long way to go before I would personally recommend taking it completely seriously and really following it.