Have You Heard of MyPlate?

I know a lot of people who are always, and I mean always, on a diet. They do so many things such as eat (or not eat) certain foods, over exercise or worse, take diet pills. It’s not that I’m totally against diet pills. It’s just that I’m scared of taking them especially because of the side effects. Who knows what’s really in them, right? Also I’m a big believer in taking everything in moderation, which is why I’ve never really been on a diet. I just try to eat healthy and I use the food pyramid as a guide for which kinds of food and how much of them I should take. Recently, however, the food pyramid has been replaced by MyPlate.

MyPlate is the US Department of Agriculture’s newest food icon. The goal of this icon is to remind Americans (and the rest of the world, I suppose) of which kinds of foods they should eat more. MyPlate emphasizes eating more fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet. The MyPlate icon looks like this:

The USDA apparently thought of using a plate icon because people can relate to it more. Obviously, more often than not, we eat off plates so this just makes sense. Personally, I like the icon. I feel like it’s easier to understand than the food pyramid. I also think that it will be more attractive to kids. I’m certainly using this to teach my kids good eating habits.