USDA food pyramid out, food plate in (PICTURES)

USDA ditches food pyramid for new design

/ istockphoto

(CBS) After almost two decades, the USDA food pyramid is history. First Lady Michelle Obama today unveiled the USDA's update on America's visual nutrition guide, replacing the familiar - and much maligned - pyramid with a plate.

PICTURES - Bye-bye pyramid, hello plate: Timeline of food guidelines

The food pyramid has been around since 1992, but nutrition experts don't seem to be mourning its demise.

"It's going to be hard not to do better than the current pyramid, which basically conveys no useful information," Dr. Walter C. Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the New York Times.

The new design incorporates seven key dietary messages:

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

Experts argued the now-defunct pyramid lumped all types of foods in its design - including unhealthy ones at the top of the pyramid . That made it hard to tell which foods were better choices.

"The original icon was a bit misleading, e.g., all fats are bad," Dr. Sara Bleich, an assistant professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University, told ABC News.

USDA spent $2 million to design and promote the plate, the Times reported. Will this costly venture cause Americans to eat better?

Dr. Robert C. Post, deputy director of the USDA, told the Times that he hopes the new visual will prompt "consumers to say, 'I need to be a little more concerned about what I choose to build a healthy day's diet.' "

The USDA has more on the new food plate.

9 Photos

Bye-bye, pyramid - hello, plate: Timeline of food guidelines

[Hypnogal]

Looks like NORMAL eating to me. I guess America has forgotten what that looks like.
Of course with the media bombarding us with EAT EAT EAT and DIET DIET DIET, it's no wonder our perceptions and attitudes of what to eat and how much to eat is totally wacked.
Remember when you were a kid and ate a bowl of cereal or some eggs and toast and then you went out and played all day? ALL DAY? Came home starving for dinner and sat down with the family and ate some meat, salad, veg, some bread and a LITTLE desert?
Oh yeah. That was WAY back & and perhaps only the most sane families served up this tradition. Lucky for me. I've still got it.
Food plate? Who needs that?

America stuffs it's face with crap anyway.

And the rest of "foodie" America is too obsessed with counting carbs to actually enjoy a meal.
New food plate.
Ha ha ha.

[Pappawtom]

Ah obesity, it is not my fault, it is the fault of the food that I am fed. I am forced to go to McDonald's and eat Big Macs, french fries, and drink a quart of soda. NO, NO, NO, I may choose to do these things but it MY fault that I am obese. I may have inherited something that would inline me to gain weight or I may eat too much of prepared foods that have an expiration date good until the next millenium but the reality of it all is, it is MY fault. I can choose to buy the ingredients and make my own meals then I will know what is in them instead of buying something already prepared that I only have to throw into the microwave, heat, and eat. Never mind that now I only come home from work and sit down in front of the computer or television and not exercise much plus watch or see all the food commercials that make me hungry. Guess what? It is not McDonalds, the government, my neighbors, friends, or relative's fault. It is mine.

Make the plate instead of the pyramid because it is easier to understand. Plead with me to be healthy. Make laws that will force restaurants to only serve healthy foods. Take out all the unhealthy ingredients from the food in the stores. You know what? I will still be fat because I will eat too much and exercise too little. You see you can not make someone be healthy if they don't want to just the same as you can not help the alcoholic until they recognize that they are an alcoholic. Diets do not come in bottles or cans of liquid or pills. Healthy weight is something that you have to work at to achieve and maintain. NO food is bad for you in the right quantities and frequency.

[crcan]

Until all sugar types (white, honey, fructose), high fructose corn syrup, and processed food is put under the "severely limit or remove from diet" category, America will never overcome the obesity epidemic. Sugar is the cause of all our current health issues -- with glucose intolerance (being poisoned by overdosing on sugar) being the main cause of Type 2 diabetes, obesity, high triglycerides, belly fat, heart attacks and HFCS being slowly recognized as a known carcinogen.

But they don't dare, due to the power of Big Corn and the Agri-Conglomeration. When they put guidelines on sugar and ban HFCS, I'll take them seriously.

Meaning: I'm never going to take them seriously.

[puzzler125]

I understand the need for more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables but I and many others cannot afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, and even canned or frozen ones in the quantities expected. Nate 650-many places outlaw the sale of raw milk.

[Nate650]

Yes, and this is a big flaw of the food industry. Quality, whole foods should be affordable to everyone if we want to solve the health crisis. Right now people have a choice of a 500 calorie Big Mac for a few bucks, or a head of organic broccoli for the same price. The food system is so skewed it's ridiculous.

Good point about the raw milk. Yet another flaw of the food system.

[billpl-2009]

my plate has a Big Mac on it

[OnTheRoad01]

I don't remember seeing Michelle Obama's name on the Presidential ballot that I used to vote. Maybe she should just sit back and keep her mouth shut, and stop spending our money!

[ggrzymala]

2 million dollars! How many homeless people would that have fed? People out of work, losing their homes etc. And they use taxpayer money to change a picture that most people won't pay attention to. Common sense! About food and government spending should prevail! If they changed the shape of a Stop Sign to a circle (a simpler shape) would that prevent people from running them? No!!! If you could teach "common sense" then you'd be on to something! Stop wasting money on "studies" that don't do anything!!!!

[RealiteBites]

If it was such common sense, then why is Sarah Palin running around telling everybody to eat s'mores, as if there weren't a national epidemic of type 2 diabetes?

Unless she and most of her followers lack common sense ... oh wait ...

[billpl-2009]

"2 million dollars! How many homeless people would that have fed?"

by our government?

...about 5

[RealiteBites]

I really like this idea! The food pyramid totally got discredited after Atkins proved that refined carbs were causing everybody to get diabetes. So it's nice to see it updated. And yeah, super simple to follow.

The only thing I don't like is the suggestion to fill half the plate with fruits and vegetables. I wish they had said to fill half the plate with vegetables (not including french fries), and to substitute fruit for dessert.

Because there's just not reason anybody should need to ever eat anything refined sugars - there's enough in fruit. And there's rarely nutritional value in cakes and cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, etc.

Sugar's a big problem with those prepared foods - they jack it up to add flavor to make up for the lack of quality, just like they do with the salt.

Another thing, summer I went through a health scare where I thought I might have developed Type 2 diabetes, and it turned out to be something else. But while I was waiting for the results of tests, I went to Las Vegas for vacation and had a pickle of a time finding healthy food to eat. Like even the healthy-looking or healthy-sounding foods like fish and vegetables came fried, and dripping in butter, etc. I really had to go out of my way to try and find stuff to eat and it was hard, especially since I was feeling well.

I wish there were a way to get restaurants to not rely on bad stuff to try and make their food taste so good.

PS Turns out I didn't have diabetes, but it was pretty scary to think I did - want to avoid getting it ever if I can by eating healthy. My mom developed it when she turned 60.

[justme2012]

Millions of taxpayer dollars wasted. Again!

[slatep]

Could Michelle Obama please explain how people have managed to survive for thousands of years before the "plate" and the "pyramid" were created.??