Clean dinner plate replaces food pyramid
ifood.tv
The food pyramids that helped generation of kids learns to eat balanced diets aren’t any more. Within their place is a thing simpler and much more relatable: an evening meal plate.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled the modern nutrition image, called MyPlate, on Thursday.
“I think it’s wonderful, especially in comparison to the MyPyramid,” said Tiffany Lommel, Gainesville City Schools nutrition director. “It’s quite simple to visualize the thought.”
My Plate features four colored areas – representing protein, fruits, vegetables and grains – over a white dinner plate, with a colored cup to represent dairy foods.
“The message is no person food or food group has every one of the nutrients we’d like,” Connie Crawley, UGA Extension
Food, nutrition and health specialist wrote in the email for the Times. “It also provides a rough estimate about how precisely most of each food group we ought to consume.”
The look advises people to eat smaller portions, reduce sodium intake, stay hydrated and low-fat or fat-free milk and increase intake of fruits, vegetables and cereals.
“This is a lot more user-friendly,” Hall County Schools Nutrition Coordinator Jennifer Teems said. “It’s feasible for kids to look at and say, ‘this’s what ought to be on my plate.’”
Teems said the one thing she would change on My Plate was to feature pictures of food.
“It just isn’t perfect needless to say, because it doesn’t handle mixed foods, but it’s much better than the pyramid,” Crawley said. “I wish it gave a size for your plate. Most dinner plates are huge now and may lead to overeating.”
Both Hall County and Gainesville systems have menus available such as the following the policies recommended through the USDA and My Plate.
Friendship Elementary will likely be taking My Plate a little further when classes come from the fall, since it will be starting as being a wellness school.
Principal Berry Walton said MyPlate may help students realize the school’s mission of reducing childhood obesity and improving academic achievement.
“I much like the new concept. It seems like being more tightly related to families,” Walton said. “You can simply have a greater mental picture of what you should expect in a very balanced meal.
