MyPlate, an Improvement?

Ever since its release in 1992, the USDA Food Pyramid has been a guide for the American diet. The pyramid was divided into six horizontal sections which featured foods from each section’s food group. It was updated in 2005, with colorful vertical wedges replacing the horizontal sections, and the silhouette of a person climbing a staircase added on the side to represent exercise. It was even renamed as MyPyramid.

The USDA’s pyramid was actually quite controversial. Some point out that it makes little sense that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, whose responsibilities include developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food, is the organization backing the design. There have been accusations that the pyramid is influenced more by the food industries than a concern for public health. For example, the section that one might expect to be labeled as “dairy” is actually labeled as “milk.” This implies that milk (or some other dairy product) is an essential part of a healthy diet, despite the fact many people are lactose intolerant or simple choose not to consume dairy, and can still maintain a complete, healthy diet.

This past June, the USDA replaced MyPyramid with a completely new image called MyPlate. MyPlate is a circle divided into four portions, with a small circle on the outside. The circle represents the recommended way to fill your plate. Fruits and vegetables cover half the plate, and protein and grains cover the other half. Grains and vegetables occupy the most space. The small circle outside the plate is dairy. Its smaller size and exclusion from the plate shows that it is less essential, an improvement over the previous design. Fats and simple sugars are simply omitted.

Unfortunately, MyPlate is still lacking in many of the same regards as its predecessor. In 2005, the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health published their own pyramid – the Healthy Eating Pyramid. Harvard nutritionist, Dr. Walter Willett, believes this better represents a healthy diet than what the USDA has published, based on the most up-to-date research available. Willett has pointed out that the USDA’s pyramid (and the new plate) does not distinguish between good and bad sources of fat, between healthy and unhealthy sources of protein, or acknowledge the use of vitamins supplement or the consumption of alcohol. MyPlate is extremely simplistic. This is a simultaneously positive and negative attribute, because it is easy to understand, but it fails to truly inform Americans how to make the healthiest choices without having to look at more resources, such as the MyPlate web site.