The Plate! All New Dietary Guidelines for Consumers

Last week the USDA announced the latest dietary guidelines for consumers. They abandoned the long used food pyramid and have now gone with a plate conception. Critics have commented for quite some time that the food pyramid was confusing and hard to understand.

There are several things youll notice right away about the plate. Vegetables and grains take up proportionally more than fruits and proteins. And there is a cup representing a serving of dairy on the side. Another thing I notice about the plate, and I am not sure if it was intentional or not, but the size of the plate. In relation to the size of the fork the plate seems to be of normal size and not a giant serving platter.

To go with the new plate theme the USDA released a new website choosemyplate.gov. On the site they have a summary of the new guidelines that go along with the plate theme.

Balancing 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 like soup, bread, and frozen meals and choose the foods with lower numbers.
• Drink water instead of sugary drinks.

The one thing obviously missing from the graphic is exercise. The old food pyramid had a guy running up the side of the pyramid to convey that we should get moving. I am not really sure how they could have worked in exercise in to the plate theme. Maybe its not needed, since these are dietary guidelines. But just about any dietitian or physician will mention exercise immediately after telling us to eat right.

For many of us, this has been common sense for some time. As fitness and health conscience consumers we realize we need to watch portions, watch what we are putting in to our bodies, and exercise frequently. In my personal experience the first suggestion of balancing calories has had the biggest impact. If you still allow yourself to enjoy your food, and just watch your portions, you can come out ahead. Too often its easy to order the large fry, or eat everything you are given at a restaurant.

There is still a lot of educating left to do. Simply switching from a pyramid to plate isnt going to magically make everyone eat better. But its a step in the right direction. People can understand a plate, the pyramid always seemed hard to adapt to what we should be eating. I also think it was for the USDA to release this new tool in the summer months. Fruits and vegetables are plenty this time of year, and its very easy to fill your plate up with fresh tasty fruits and vegetables.

A Healthy Life by Dr. Eva Liang
A guide to a healthy you by the inventor of the SWIH
SWIH, an all purpose, personal water bottle holder and body cooler that can also be used as a sweatband or headband.
http://www.myswih.com