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Yesterday morning the U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled MyPlate – the new food icon that replaced MyPyramid. I wavered back and forth about hopping the metro down to the press conference but decided it was more important to spend the morning with my nephews, walking them to their elementary school and talking to them about everything from school to the summer to upcoming birthday parties.

So, as I watched the press conference and waited for reactions on Twitter with eager anticipation, I wondered if the American public paid any attention to this monumental change in nutrition history and what percentage of the public actually uses the food guidelines put out by our government. I don’t remember being taught anything about nutrition in elementary school. Were my nieces and nephews given any guidance from their teachers? Is nutrition incorporated into their other subjects?

Our government has provided dietary guidance since the early 1900′s (click here for more information about this history). And, dietary guidance will continue to change through time as our knowledge about nutrition grows thanks to new developments in food and nutrition research.

MyPlate replaced MyPyramid, an icon I thought was horribly confusing when it first came out (with colors and no words to represent food groups and bands that were supposed to indicate the relative proportions of each food a person should consume).

My first reaction to MyPlate was very positive – a plate is something people can relate to and it shows the approximate proportions of food very well.

The messages on the MyPlate website are quick and simple yet there is more information if you click on any of the links (tons of information in fact). And, after years of working with people, I’ve learned that easy works whereas complicated messages can lead many people to forget making any changes!

Though my initial reaction was very positive, after reading Twitter I heard many different views, some positive, some negative, and some asking where certain foods are – nuts, seeds, healthy oils, dessert etc. And, I took all of these viewpoints into consideration but still came to the same conclusion: MyPlate is a positive change in the right direction, it is simple and easy to understand and making massive dietary recommendations to the public is an arduous task – the USDA will never be able to zone in on every American’s dietary needs with one food icon or include every single concept (like discretionary calories, exercise) in a succinct manner with one picture. And, I think the First Lady has brought much needed attention to nutrition and exercise, attention that I certainly wasn’t aware of when I was growing up. This is a positive step in the right direction and I look forward to seeing the messages that come from MyPlate and the increased nutrition knowledge in children, teenagers and adults!

What do you think of the new food icon?

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• Health & Fitness
• Nutrition

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