In June 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) introduced MyPlate as a replacement for its well-known Food Pyramid, which for the previous 19 years had been the US Government’s tool of choice to teach the masses what to eat

The Food Pyramid

These are the basic tenets of the Food Pyramid, as well as its weaknesses:

1) It basically says to concentrate your diet mainly on bread, pasta, cereal and rice

2) It has fruit at level pegging with vegetables, which is questionable as fruit is packed full of sugar

3) Protein is 3rd up the pyramid! On level pegging with dairy no less! Arguably, the western diet is deficient in the right type of protein, and dairy, while important, should not be consumed in the same proportion

4) Fat (and oil, although they are essentially the same thing) is plumped into one general evil category, along with ‘sweets’. Fat is in fact vital to a healthy, lean diet and as important as the carbohydrates promoted at the bottom of the pyramid

MyPlate

So was MyPlate an improvement? NMTBP thinks so, for the following reasons:

1) Protein has a much greater place of importance, taking up a quarter of the plate. An improvement

2) Vegetables have the biggest portion, and a much bigger portion than fruit. A significant improvement

3) Diary is  a side serving – and probably in the correct proportion. Although it appears they’re suggesting drinking it instead of water. Not good AT ALL

4) Refined sugars are ignored completely, which is excellent

4) Grains are still given arguably too big a portion, especially as no distinction is made between wholegrain and refined grain

5) It completely omits fats. Arguably this is understandable as fats will be present in the other food categories. However, it may lead people to think that a low fat diet is what’s being suggested

On the whole, however, it’s a welcome upgrade to the pyramid

The Healthy Eating Plate

However, NMTBP strongly prefers the excellent Harvard School of Public Health’s (HSPH) Healthy Eating Plate, a visual guide that provides a much better blueprint for eating a healthy meal. Like the U.S. government’s MyPlate, the Healthy Eating Plate is simple and easy to understand—and it addresses important deficiencies in the MyPlate icon

“Unfortunately, like the earlier U.S. Department of Agriculture Pyramids, MyPlate mixes science with the influence of powerful agricultural interests, which is not the recipe for healthy eating,” says Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and chair of the Department of Nutrition at HSPH.  “The Healthy Eating Plate is based on the best available scientific evidence and provides consumers with the information they need to make choices that can profoundly affect our health and well being”

Comparing the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate to the USDA’s MyPlate shows the shortcomings in the USDA’s guide. MyPlate doesn’t tell consumers that whole grains are better for health than refined grains; its protein section offers no indication that some high-protein foods—fish, poultry, beans, nuts—are healthier than red meats and processed meats; it’s silent on beneficial fats; it doesn’t distinguish between potatoes and other vegetables; it recommends dairy at every meal, even though there is little evidence that high dairy intake protects against osteoporosis but substantial evidence that high intake can be harmful; and it says nothing about sugary drinks. Finally, the Healthy Eating Plate reminds people to stay active, an important factor in weight control, while MyPlate does not mention the importance of activity

The sections of the Healthy Eating Plate include:

Vegetables: Eat an abundant variety, the more the better. Limited consumption of potatoes is recommended, however, as they are full of rapidly digested starch, which has the same roller-coaster effect on blood sugar as refined grains and sweets. In the short-term, these surges in blood sugar and insulin lead to hunger and overeating, and in the long term, to weight gain, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic disorders

Fruits: Choose a rainbow of fruits every day

Whole Grains: Choose whole grains, such as oatmeal, whole wheat bread, and brown rice. Refined grains, such as white bread and white rice, act like sugar in the body. Eating too many refined grains can raise the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes

Healthy Proteins: Choose fish, poultry, beans, or nuts, which contain healthful nutrients. Limit red meat and avoid processed meats, since eating even small quantities of these on a regular basis raises the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, and weight gain

Healthy Oils: Use olive, rapeseed, and other plant oils in cooking, on  salads, and at the table, since these healthy fats reduce harmful cholesterol and are good for the heart. Limit butter and avoid trans fat

Water: Drink water, tea, or coffee (with little or no sugar). Limit milk and dairy (1-2 servings per day) and juice (1 small glass a day) and avoid sugary drinks

Stay active: The red figure running across the Healthy Eating Plate’s placemat is a reminder that staying active is also important in weight control.

The sizes of the sections suggest approximate relative proportions of  each of the food groups to include on a healthy plate. They are not based on specific calorie amounts, and they are not meant to prescribe a  certain number of calories or servings per day, since these numbers vary from person to person. The aim of the Healthy Eating Plate is to illustrate one way to put together a healthy meal that fits with the latest scientific thinking. For more, read the HSPH Nutrition Source website or use this QR code to get an interactive image of the plate

The main message of the Healthy Eating Plate is to focus on diet quality:

• The type of carbohydrate in the diet is more important than the amount of carbohydrate in the diet, because some sources of carbohydrate—like vegetables (other than potatoes), fruits, whole grains, and beans—are healthier than others
• The Healthy Eating Plate also advises consumers to avoid sugary beverages, a major source of calories—usually with little nutritional value—in the modern diet
• The Healthy Eating Plate encourages consumers to use healthy oils, and it does not set a maximum on the percentage of calories people should get each day from healthy sources of fat. In this way, the Healthy Eating Plate recommends the opposite of the low-fat message promoted for decades by the USDA