The New Food Pyramid For Dummies-A Plate

If you don’t understand how to eat healthy with a visual aid that many of us use every day–a plate,  then you probably only eat out of Styrofoam, cardboard or plastic anyway and it’s a lost cause.  In Our First Lady Michelle Obama’s quest for a healthier Nation and with emphasis on rampant childhood obesity, she. and USDA officials recently unveiled a new colored graphic that replaces the old food pyramid graphic that many people ignored anyway.

The new USDA pyramid is called MyPlate and depicts a 9 inch plate  (no, not a pie plate)  that breaks a nutritious diet into four sections: fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. There is also a small circle graphic for dairy.  There is no mistaking this graphic; vegetables are green, fruits are red, grains are orange and protein is blue.  All in neat little triangles right on the plate. I don’t see a brownie or ice cream or cheese cake section on the plate so I am going to assume that kind of stuff is basically out.

Part of the new dietary guidelines also include switching to fat-free or low-fat milk and drinking water over sugary drinks. The beverage industry must have little or no clout with the FDA and Obama or else their lobbyists are asleep at the wheel. While we all know water is best for us, some of  the sugary beverage companies still hound us daily with isn’t this a cute bottle advertising?  And it’s “cool”  to drink sugar laden beverages messages.  I look for this type of advertising to pick up as they try and fight the water-is-better campaign.  Their other possibility for marketing could be additional “water” beverages to further glut the spring water, artesian water, mountain water, summer water, green water, earth water etc. market. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

The Choose MyPlate campaign I think is a good idea and has the added benefit of helping the economy. Our average dinner plate in the U.S. is 10 1/2 to 12 inches, depending on the manufacturer.  The average salad plate about 7 1/2 inches.  That means that the 9 inch plate that the MyPlate campaign is based on is pretty-much non-existent in my cupboards, and many others.  They are quick to point out that plate size matters and portion size matters if we want to follow these guidelines properly.  So, I figure it’s just a matter of time when we will all be clamoring for 9 inch plates and there won’t be any and then they will have to be made.  Then a mad dash will ensue  to buy stock from Fiesta, Lenox, Pfaltzgraff and Noritake  and those of us bright eyes that thought of this phenomenon way ahead of the pack will be rich. I can’t wait.

As luck would have it I found a 9 in. square plate made by Fiestaware, the original Homer Laughlin Co., they have it in round too but the square is pretty cool; http://amzn.to/1yw2YQs It is at Amazon and I am an affiliate so that means I get a tiny commission if you purchase anything through my link. Your plate can then turn into “My Plate.”