Posted: June 22nd, 2011 | Author: amy@withamymac.com (Amy Mac) | Filed under: amy mac, childhood obesity, Episodes, Fit Life, food plate, food pyramid, health eating, michelle obama obesity fight, nutrition, personal health, usda dietary plate, withamymac | Comments Off
Michelle Obama unveiled the new USDA food plate which will be replacing the food pyramid after all these years. It’s nice to see a change up from the food pyramid, even though the pyramid was a familiar icon to most of us.
Here are my thoughts on the new USDA dietary plate in the latest episode of Fit Life…
Read my full length article on the USDA Dietary Plate.
Fit Links:
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Posted: June 9th, 2011 | Author: amy@withamymac.com (Amy Mac) | Filed under: amy mac, choose my plate, dietary symbol, Fit Life, food plate, food pyramid, healthy eating, michelle obama obesity, News, portion control, smart food choices, usda plate, withamymac | Comments Off
What do you think of the new dietary food plate?
Michelle Obama unveiled the new USDA dietary symbol a short time ago and it is unlike any symbol of the past because it eliminates the food pyramid that we all grew up with and replaces it with a dinner plate. There are pros and cons to this switch and here they are…
The Pros:
- I think the plate is very simple and straightforward. I applaud the effort they put into making this understood in just one glance.
- I think my favorite aspect is the glass of dairy next to the plate which encourages parents to serve milk, which is full of calcium and protein, with the meal.
- I also really like the focus on fruits and vegetables. We’ve gone to eating so much processed and pre-packaged foods that I think this is a good reminder of what your meal should really contain.
The Cons:
I think the plate makes a lot of assumptions.
- It assumes you know what protein and grain foods are, where as the pyramid provided images of examples of the foods and how many servings you should aim for, which meant less guessing on which food groups you were eating.
- The plate also doesn’t help with portion control. Since there aren’t any servings or serving sizes with the new symbol, I think we are still going to see trouble with people just eating way too much food.
Overall, I think it’s great that there was an initiative to mix up the old pyramid, because let’s face it, the “new” pyramid didn’t get any traction.
What do you think of this switch? Will this have an impact on what people will eat and feed their kids? Will it fight obesity? Leave your comments below!
Fit Links:
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