After devoting decades to designing a pyramid, then honing and refining that design, the nation’s nutrition experts have settled on what they believe is the perfect geometry to represent what we should eat — a plate.
Arriving in the midst of an obesity epidemic, this new at-a-glance guide to healthful eating is meant to remind consumers to limit heavy foods and beef up on the greens.
“MyPlate” promotes fruits and vegetables, which cover half the circle. Grains occupy an additional quarter, as do proteins such as meat, fish and poultry. A glass of milk rests to the side. Desserts have been banished to the desert.
The message is clear: “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables,” said Robert Post, an official at USDA’s center for nutrition policy and promotion.
The Obama administration has high hopes for establishing the colorful image as a ubiquitous consumer icon. Post said the USDA is targeting food producers, health insurers, restaurants and schools as partners in promoting the image.
At a media-heavy roll-out Thursday morning at USDA headquarters, the famously foodie first lady presided. With the White House vegetable garden in full leaf, Michelle Obama armed her crusade against the country’s obesity problem with what nutritionists and food lobbyists are already calling a powerful image.
“It’s brilliant in its simplicity,” said Robb MacKie, head of the American Bakers Association, which represents bread makers. “It’s something the average American can look at and get a visual feel for how they can fill up a plate at a meal.”
To avoid upstaging the first lady, the USDA made a select group of academics and food industry representatives sign non-disclosure forms at a private unveiling of the image three weeks ago, several sources said. Still, word leaked, leading to early rave reviews from hard-to-please corners of the foodieverse – and sighs of relief that the food plate’s predecessor, USDA’s confusing MyPyramid, had finally been dismantled.
Rolled out in 2005, MyPyramid eschewed words and depictions of food, featuring instead colored bars streaking down from a pyramid’s apex and a stick figure running up the side. “It was foodless and useless,” said Marion Nestle, a New York University nutritionist. And it was impossible to decipher without logging onto the USDA Web site.
But the meaning of the new image, a colorful wheel covered with grains, vegetables and meats, is instantly clear, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit organization known for its aggressive campaigns against fatty foods. “I saw it for 20 seconds maybe,” she said, referring to the private unveiling. “And I can picture it exactly.”
Already, the fruit and vegetable lobby is going bananas.
“This is a really, really big deal,” said Lorelei DiSogra, vice president of nutrition and health for the United Fresh Produce Association, the small but feisty lobby for fruit and vegetable producers. “It works on a plate, a bowl, a lunch bag,” she said of the concept of making half of every meal fruits and vegetables.
Arriving in the midst of an obesity epidemic, this new at-a-glance guide to healthful eating is meant to remind consumers to limit heavy foods and beef up on the greens.
“MyPlate” promotes fruits and vegetables, which cover half the circle. Grains occupy an additional quarter, as do proteins such as meat, fish and poultry. A glass of milk rests to the side. Desserts have been banished to the desert.
The message is clear: “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables,” said Robert Post, an official at USDA’s center for nutrition policy and promotion.
The Obama administration has high hopes for establishing the colorful image as a ubiquitous consumer icon. Post said the USDA is targeting food producers, health insurers, restaurants and schools as partners in promoting the image.
At a media-heavy roll-out Thursday morning at USDA headquarters, the famously foodie first lady presided. With the White House vegetable garden in full leaf, Michelle Obama armed her crusade against the country’s obesity problem with what nutritionists and food lobbyists are already calling a powerful image.
“It’s brilliant in its simplicity,” said Robb MacKie, head of the American Bakers Association, which represents bread makers. “It’s something the average American can look at and get a visual feel for how they can fill up a plate at a meal.”
To avoid upstaging the first lady, the USDA made a select group of academics and food industry representatives sign non-disclosure forms at a private unveiling of the image three weeks ago, several sources said. Still, word leaked, leading to early rave reviews from hard-to-please corners of the foodieverse – and sighs of relief that the food plate’s predecessor, USDA’s confusing MyPyramid, had finally been dismantled.
But the meaning of the new image, a colorful wheel covered with grains, vegetables and meats, is instantly clear, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit organization known for its aggressive campaigns against fatty foods. “I saw it for 20 seconds maybe,” she said, referring to the private unveiling. “And I can picture it exactly.”
Already, the fruit and vegetable lobby is going bananas.
“This is a really, really big deal,” said Lorelei DiSogra, vice president of nutrition and health for the United Fresh Produce Association, the small but feisty lobby for fruit and vegetable producers. “It works on a plate, a bowl, a lunch bag,” she said of the concept of making half of every meal fruits and vegetables.
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