My Plate Replaces the Food Pyramid

We are finally heading in the right direction!

Choose My Plate

The USDA has replaced the Food Pyramid with ChooseMyPlate. The new dinner plate design should make it easier for you to choose healthy foods, because you can match the food amounts on your plate to what the USDA suggests. The new dinner plate symbol is part of a bigger healthy-eating campaign that has 7 key messages:

•Enjoy your food, but eat less of it.

•Avoid oversized portions.

•Make your plate half fruits and vegetables. Any fruit or vegetable or any 100% fruit or vegetable juice fits into this category. Fruits may be fresh, canned, frozen, or dried, and they can be whole, cut-up, or pureed. Vegetables may be raw, cooked, fresh, frozen, canned, or dried, and they can be whole, cut-up, or mashed(Remember that Fresh or Frozen is best and to limit consumption of fruit juices, as they tend to be high in calories and you do not get the fiber contained in whole fruit).

•Eat whole grains. Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley or another cereal grain is a grain. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel. Some examples of whole grains are whole wheat flour, oatmeal, and brown rice.

Drink fat-free or low-fat milk.

•Compare the amount of sodium in foods you buy and choose the foods with lower numbers.

•Drink water instead of sugary drinks.

ChooseMyPlate also encourages you to choose lean proteins for the protein portion of your plate and to go with calcium-rich foods for your dairy portion. Daily exercise is also important.

To learn more, visit www.ChooseMyPlate.gov.