Out with the Pyramid, In with the Plate

I wanted to do a post on the new plate for a while now. Right after I heard this quote on the today show.

"My family believes in the food pyramid. Whenever we go to the buffet, they make a pyramid of food on their plates."-Al Roker

Sometime during your life, you’ve probably seen that colorful triangle containing a variety of foods and how many servings you need to eat each day. Perhaps you learned about it back in health class, saw it displayed on the cafeteria wall, or glanced at it on the back of your cereal box one morning. That familiar food pyramid (introduced in 1991) was supposed to be our nutrition survival guide in a one-size-fits-all world. But let's face it—many people found the pyramid to be confusing, and felt that it didn't really help individuals know how to plan a healthy diet, one meal at a time. And maybe more importantly, nutrition (and how many servings of food you need each day) is far from one-size-fits-all.

So in May 2011, the USDA finally ditched the pyramid concept in favor of a brand new shape: a circle—or rather, a plate.

Pyramid vs. Plate: What's different?
While the basic nutritional guidelines for Americans remain the same, the USDA Plate and the old pyramid do have a few noticeable differences:

Less emphasis on grains. The food pyramid was dominated by grains, which filled in the largest spot at the bottom of the pyramid in the original version, and the large orange vertical bar in the 2005 version. The Plate version reserves only one quadrant for grains (with an emphasis on whole grains) and really focused on fruits and vegetables, which take up half the plate—more than any other food group. Many nutrition experts see this as a major improvement since Americans tend to fall short of reaching their minimum 5-a-day requirements. If half of the food you ate at each meal was comprised of vegetables and fruits, you'd have no problem reaching 5-9 servings of fresh, frozen, cooked or canned produce each day.

No mention of fats and oils (or sugars for that matter). These appeared on the old pyramid, shown in small quantities with the message to eat these foods rarely or in small amounts. These don't show up anywhere on the Plate, despite the fact that not all fats are created equal and that dietary fat is essential to optimal health. One could assume that the foods you include on your plate are going to contain fat, or be prepared in some source of fat, but the fact that it's not mentioned at all as part of a healthy diet may seem questionable—especially when Americans tend to consume too much of the wrong kinds of fats. Don’t despair, a quick click to the ChooseMyPlate.gov site provides in-depth information about fats, oils and added sugars.

Bye, bye serving sizes. Not only did the food guide pyramid tell you how many servings of each food group to consume each day (such as 6-11 servings of grains), but it somewhat alluded to how large a single serving actually was. The Plate does not depict or mention how many servings you should eat of any particular food group, nor how big a serving actually is. Many nutrition professionals have been using a plate method similar to this to educate clients for years. The assumption is that if you eat off of a normal sized plate (nine inches in diameter or smaller), and if you don't pile your food up too high, you're eating a normal, healthy amount for weight management. In a sense, the lack of serving sizes makes the Plate simpler to implement and understand than the pyramid once was.

Where's the beef? While the pyramid featured food groups, the plate mixes in one other element: nutrients. At least as far as protein is concerned. Protein is a nutrient found in various foods, not an actual food group, which has left some people perplexed. Fruits (food), vegetables (food), grains (food), and milk (food) are all represented, but protein (nutrient) seems out of place. The USDA says that in their test groups, Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds understood what "protein" meant: a variety of sources (meat, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, beans, soy, etc.). Some critics say that protein is found in many foods already listed on the Plate, such as grains, milk and even vegetables, and that this might confuse consumers. Other critics of this approach feel that Americans will only think of "meat" when they hear the word protein, even though plant-based proteins are also healthful and should be included in one's diet. Most likely, simplifying the once tongue-twisting name (the meat, beans, nuts, and legumes food group) into "protein" was just easier when designing this graphic. After all, simplicity and ease of understanding is the main goal of the Plate.

Although no single image can possibly convey all the complexities of nutrition and healthy eating, many see the Plate as an improvement over the pyramid of our past. According to the USDA and other food experts, the simple Plate icon is easier to understand. You can look at it once and easily remember what it conveys, and which food groups it includes. Most people couldn't say the same about the complexity of the food pyramid.

Dissecting the Plate
Here's a rundown of the basic messages that go along with the Plate.

The plate features five food groupings, each represented by their own color. The largest area is vegetables, followed by grains. Dairy is offset to the side of the plate, but if you choose not to eat or drink dairy products, the ChooseMyPlate.gov website also lists calcium-fortified soy milk to be nutritionally equivalent in place of milk.

In addition to the Plate graphic itself, the new icon is accompanied by the following nutritional guidelines that offer more information for healthy eating.

* "Enjoy your food, but eat less."
* "Avoid oversized portions."
* "Make half your plate fruits and vegetables."
* "Make at least half your grains whole grains."
* "Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk."
* "Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread and frozen meals—and choose the foods with lower numbers."
* "Drink water instead of sugary drinks."

Don’t worry if your favorite meals don’t fit exactly onto the new Plate. Many of the dishes we eat are combinations foods such as soups, stews, casseroles, pizza, stir fries, and burritos. With a meal like a casserole or burrito (as it related to the Plate), simply do your best. The USDA doesn't currently offer guidelines to help Americans dissect their combination meals, but we expect more tips to come in this area very soon.