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Food Pyramid Changes to Food Plate

  • Spence Cooper
  • June 9, 2011

The USDA and First Lady Michelle Obama announced on June 2 that the government is replacing their food pyramid, used to represent nutritional guidelines, with a food plate. The USDA partnered with Michelle Obama and her “Let’s Move” campaign to help guide consumers toward eating a healthy meal.

“This is a quick, simple reminder for all of us to be more mindful of the foods that we’re eating,” the First Lady said, and emphasized the importance of having a kid-friendly nutrition symbol. “(Children) can learn to use this tool now and use it for the rest of their lives,” she said.

The USDA “Choose My Plate” is divided into four triangular shapes labeled as grains, protein, vegetables, and fruit. The shapes appear to illustrate a 60-40 respective split between vegetables and grains, and a fruits and protein.

The USDA “Choose My Plate” website emphasizes eating less, recommends avoiding over-sized portions, and suggests making half your plate fruits and vegetables, half your grains whole grains, and suggests switching to fat-free or low-fat milk.

Also suggested is drinking water instead of sugary drinks, and comparing sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals, then choosing foods with lower numbers.

The USDA Food Pyramid was created in 1992 and then revamped in 2005. The official 1992 pyramid released and distributed to the American public was completely different from the Food Pyramid originally envisioned by Luise Light, the creator of the concept.

Light concluded the altered food guide was a promotional tool to entice the public to buy and consume more calories, sugar and starch.

Light’s pyramid did not have starch as the foundation. The base of Light’s pyramid consisted of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, with 5 to 9 servings daily. And 2 to 4 daily servings were recommended for whole grain cereals and grains.

Food Pyramid Changes to Food PlateLight claimed an alteration to her Food Pyramid was made at the political level. “Instead of fruits and vegetables making up the base of the diet,”she wrote, “the cereals and wheat products were made the base of the pyramid, and the recommendation [for starchy foods] was no longer 2 to 4 as we had determined but switched 6 to 11 servings! We couldn’t believe it!”

Prior the the 2005 overhaul of the Food Pyramid that was subsequently released as “MyPyramid”in April 2005, a potpourri of food companies fought for positioning on the Food Pyramid.

Back then, The Wall Street Journal noted: “The tiniest change to the guidelines or pyramid can swing food companies’ sales by millions of dollars, either way. Foreign interests are weighing in, too: A representative from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, which oversees that nation’s palm-oil exports, braved one of the longest flights in the world for a meeting with the USDA official overseeing the pyramid overhaul”

Jeff Nedelman, a food-industry consultant said, “Every aisle of the supermarket has a lobbyist in town. The pyramid has crumbled. The industry groups are warily circling and eying one another.”

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