Goodbye Food Pyramid, Hello Dinner Plate

[elleng]

The Obama administration is about to ditch the food pyramid, that symbol of healthy eating for the last two decades. In its place officials are dishing up a simple, plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for the basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/health/nutrition/28plate.html?hp

[supernova]

1. Can't wait to see it

the Dinner Plate idea might be more realistically relatable than the pyramid idea in that you can imagine the more healthy foods on your plate from the diagram.

I threw out the old pyramid about 10 years ago when I went Atkins. I've known since my teen years that eating "8-10" servings of grain was not realistic or even possible.

The past Since then I've replaced it with another pyramid that looks more like this

Chocolate
Oils (good fats)
Protein
Fruits
Vegetables

It's an ongoing work in progress, I hope to refine it as I learn more.

[elleng]

2. So chocolate's on the top, which means you eat this first/most/best???

Pyramid idea was bad from the get-go; dinner plate MUCH more useful.

[Warpy]

3. Good, most symbol driven people will react better to the plate

and relate to it as slices of pie, big slices of fruits and veggies, small slices of meats and sweets.

The pyramid didn't work because symbol driven people are usually trained to think of the top of that pyramid as being "best."