Michelle Obama’s New USDA Dietary Plate

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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!

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