Remember the Food Pyramid? That symbol the government uses to teach consumers how to eat healthfully (well, at least up until today). Well, forget it. After two decades, it has been retired and replaced with a Dinner Plate, called MyPlate, as seen above. I watched today’s webcast in which Michelle Obama and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled our country’s new food icon. Read on for the details
The Food Guide Pyramid and it’s later iteration, MyPyramid, have been the government’s visual symbols for representing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for two decades now. With obesity rates continually on the uprise and the state of Americans’ health deteriorating since the inception of the Pyramid, it doesn’t seem to have worked very well. Most likely because it didn’t provide advice for how to make healthful choices within each of the food groups. For example, the pyramids stressed making grains and starches the foundation of the diet, but didn’t clarify whole grains over refined grains. Another example, skim milk wasn’t stressed over whole milk; only the number of servings was provided.
So, to clear up the confusion, the Obama administration’s 2010 White House Child Obesity Task Force tasked USDA to come up with a new symbol that supports the salient points of the most recent set of Dietary Guidelines for Americans that were released back in January. The task force specifically requested that the symbol be visually simple and based on scientific evidence.
After months of hard work by several government agencies and health professionals, MyPlate was conceived and can now be found at www.choosemyplate.gov, along with nutrition communications materials and other tools and resources for health professionals and consumers to put the plate into action.
The guidelines released back in January are based on two overarching concepts: 1) Maintain calorie balance over time to achieve and sustain a healthy weight and 2) Focus on consuming nutrient-dense foods and beverages. The following messages are featured to provide more specific, or actionable, direction:
Balance Calories
- Enjoy your food, but eat less
- Avoid oversized portions
Foods to Increase
- Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
- Make at least half your grains whole grains
- Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk
Foods to Reduce
- Compare sodium in foods and choose the foods with lower numbers
- Drink water instead of sugary drinks
I believe MyPlate achieves the goal of simplicity and supporting research-based evidence. It provides visual guidance for how to portion a balanced meal amongst the major food groups, including fruits, vegetables, protein, grains and dairy.
What the MyPlate visual doesn’t do is provide guidance on how to make healthy choices WITHIN each of the food groups or how many servings to eat each day. For example, it doesn’t differentiate between heart-healthy fats and saturated and trans fats or choosing low-fat dairy over whole fat varieties. Nor does it recommend that plant-based protein replace animal proteins for some meals. That’s where consumers need to take personal responsibility to go beyond the visual to learn how to make healthful choices within each food group based on preferences, as well as learn how to determine their unique calorie, nutrition and physical activity needs.
But where does the consumer learn about balancing their plate if their meal doesn’t fit into the plate model, which is the case for many commonly-consumed foods, including pizza, soups, tacos and sandwiches. How does the consumer learn how to fit sweets and snack foods into the diet in moderation, especially if they are trying to lose weight? These are the questions that no visual model will ever be able to answer for every individual, no matter how good it is, how easy it is to understand and whether it is based on scientifically-proven research. These questions are answered through the expertise and practice of health professionals, namely registered dietitians, physicians and public health advocates.
As was clearly stated in today’s press conference, MyPlate is not the one-size-fits-all solution to our nation’s health problems. It is just a guide, so that individuals can more easily make personal changes to improve their diet. We still have much more work to do, including making it easier and more affordable for all Americans to access healthful foods and encourage living a more active lifestyle.
The hope, though, is that MyPlate will be a starting point to get our nation’s health back on track.
This entry was posted in Nutrition and Wellness and tagged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Dinner Plate, First Lady, food pyramid, Michelle Obama, MyPlate, Tom Vilsack, United States Department of Agriculture. Bookmark the permalink.← Do You Eat Certified Gluten Free Oats?Sorry…no post today →6 Responses to Bye Bye Food Pyramid; Hello Dinner Plate
Leave a Reply
-
Find me on
-
Affiliates
Pingback: MyPyramid to MyPlate: New Food Icon is Unveiled In Washington, DC | Nutrition Unplugged
Pingback: The New MyPlate | Nicole's Nutrition
Pingback: Welcome MyPlate (Thali), Goodbye MyPyramid! | Aarti Batavia
Pingback: Welcome MyPlate (Thali), Goodbye MyPyramid! - Michigan Indian Community Blog
Pingback: MyPyramid to MyPlate: New Food Icon is Unveiled In Washington, DC « Headline « Women's Health – All About Women's Health, Sexuality, and Reproduction
Pingback: I Do Dinner Plates