USDA Steps up to the Plate
(Credit: USDA)
With a revision of its food icon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture isn’t putting too much on people’s plates — and that’s why many experts consider it effective.
MyPlate, introduced earlier this month, is an icon of a plate that replaces the food pyramid, which debuted in 1992. The plate is divided into four food groups: vegetables, fruit, grains and protein; a fifth group next to the plate represents dairy foods. It gives consumers a clearly defined map for portioning food groups for every meal of the day.
I think it’s an improvement over the pyramid because consumer messages should be conceptually and visually simplistic — easy to understand,” said Jennifer Ventrelle, a registered dietitian, certified personal trainer and director of the lifestyle programs at Rush University Medical Center’s Prevention Center.
MyPlate is an attempt to help curb the growing obesity rates in the United States. Nearly 34 percent of adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than double the percentage from 30 years ago. The rate of obese children, meanwhile, tripled during that span, reaching 17 percent.
Ventrelle and the Prevention Center emphasize weight management in their goal to prevent conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. She had already been using a graphic similar to MyPlate for the program’s educational material.
Ventrelle uses a simple message: half a plate of vegetables, a quarter plate of carbohydrates — including fruit, dairy and grains — and a quarter plate of protein. That’s why she welcomes the change from pyramid to plate.
“Visually, the pyramid was too busy, so I don’t think people look at it and have an intuitive sense of what to do,” Ventrelle said. “Whereas with the plate, you can look at it and it’s easy to figure out how to portion out your meals.”
But there is one part of the pyramid, now missing from the plate, she believes is important to stress.
“The pyramid had a message about daily physical activity,” Ventrelle said. “I think that’s an important point to emphasize. People shouldn’t forget to balance physical activity and healthy eating.”
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