usda

usda Gone is the basement level of the pyramid—the heftiest slab—a foundation of breads, starches and other carbohydrates. Gone is the mid section of fruits and veggies narrowing to the tiniest peak of fats, sweets and oils built on Bush-era dietary research that all fats were bad fats. “We’re working to make healthy choices easy choices,” said Surgeon General Regina Benjamin at this morning’s unveiling, who linked the new diagram to First Lady Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack followed by explaining the need for the tool.


My Pyramid was simply too complex,” he said, and is confident the new tool will be effective is a “simple visual research based icon about proportion sizes and what should be on the American plate.” Enter MyPlate, the third food logo the U.S.D.A has pitched in the past twenty years. Now those same fruits and vegetables take center stage and make up 50% of the recommended daily diet. Instead of complex food groups, the plate is split into an easy four: fruits, vegetables, proteins and grain. A dairy icon sits to the top right, symbolizing a glass of milk. Obama praised the simplicity of the diagram for parents concerned with their kids’ healthy eating habits.


It’s nice to know that if half [of a child’s] meal is fruits and vegetables alongside grains, proteins and low-fat dairy, then they’re good.” But critics are concerned that the cost of MyPlate may not be so “good.” According to the New York Times, the U.S.D.A. has already spent $2 million developing and promoting the plate logo, costs that covered research, focus groups and the creation of a new Web site. That total will likely swell after publicity efforts are kicked off in the first year of the new campaign announced this morning by First Lady Obama, who promised that her Let’s Move initiative would continue to work to promote MyPlate in coming months.

usda