The hot topic this week in the nutrition world is the release of the
USDA's My Plate and has been met with as much skepticism and analysis as
last year's study that suggested saturated fat intake may not be as detrimental to heart health as previously thought. There have been numerous blog posts on the merits and applicability of The Plate so I'm not going in that direction today (if you're interested, I've posted links to a few of my favourites at the end of this post).
Pyramid is out - My Plate is in
The USDA has gotten rid of their nutritional icon "the food pyramid" that served to guide Americans' eating habits for nearly 20 years. Here in Canada, we have the familiar Canada Food Guide rainbow.
Although updated in 2007, many feel the rainbow graphic, charts and subsequent messages are confusing and leave a lot of questions unanswered. There has also been widespread criticism that the CFG fails to provide Canadians with guidelines that are specific enough, and is too heavily influenced by the food industry.
Criticism aside, the switch to a "plate" concept sounds like a great (and very common sense) idea (where we got the idea to attribute food to rainbows and pyramids in the first place is beyond me). The
Canadian Diabetes Association has been using the healthy plate image for years. It's simple and it makes sense.
Is My Plate an improvement?
Although the overall dietary recommendations for the food plate as opposed to the pyramid aren't
that much different, the plate certainly offers a more relatable graphic. The easier something is to understand, the more people you're going to reach, and the more likely people are to incorporate that message into their own habits.
The "key" messages are extremely simplistic, and there aren't many of them:
Balancing Calories
● Enjoy your food, but eat less.
● Avoid oversized portions.
Foods to Increase
● Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
● Make at least half your grains whole grains.
● Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.
Foods to Reduce
● Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals ― and choose the foods with lower numbers.
● Drink water instead of sugary drinks.
At first I thought "wow, that's
it for recommendations??", then I discovered the multitude of information hidden throughout the site. Ok, so it's not really "hidden", but it was such a maze to navigate, it might as well have been. As I just said,
the easier something is to understand, the more people you're going to reach, and the more likely people are to incorporate that message into their own habits. However, to see "how much" of each food group I needed, I had to take a cyber joy-ride through the My Plate website.
To see how much I should be eating for grains, this is the path I had to take:
USDA > My Plate > Food Groups > Grains group > How much is needed > click here to see chart > **Click here to see what counts as an ounce-equivalent of grains > click here to see chart. !!!
7 clicks and 2 charts later (!!) I learn that I need 6 "ounce-equivalents" of grains. I then have to get to another chart to do the math to find out what "6 ounce-equivalents" is in real food. Confused yet? Me too. Not only is it difficult to navigate, but we know that charts are a high literacy tool, which means that many people won't be able to understand them.
Another example of confusion: The portions. For instance, "dairy" is measured in cups. According to the Plate, a woman my age needs "3 cups" of dairy per day. So if I have an ounce of cheese, I have to find the appropriate chart, and convert ounces of cheese into "cups" of dairy. Add to that the "serving sizes" on the nutrition facts label, and you've got some confused consumers. I think the CFG's "portions" is a much better system.
I
think part of the purpose of this plate was to make things simpler. My original intent for this blog post was to examine the real messages of the Food Plate, and consider whether Canada should adopt something similar. But as I began to cruise the USDA website, the un-userfriendliness of the site and the information it contains was something I couldn't ignore.
The Plate, as with the Food Pyramid and Canada Food Guide, certainly has it's short-comings. But trying to develop nutritional guidelines for an entire population isn't an easy task. However, if you don't have a clear and concise method for getting this information to people, and don't present it in a way that is easy to understand, it's useless. My guess it that many people won't get past the plate image. But hey, my bet is that the Plate image will come into more people's minds when they're filling their plates than the Pyramid ever did.
So to answer the question in the headline "Should Canada adopt the food plate?", my answer is
I don't know yet! because I was too consumed with the charts and graphs to analyze it. But I can say this: We should definitely NOT adopt their website!
Stay tuned for Part two of
Rainbows and pyramids: Should Canada adopt the food plate? where I will actually get around to exploring the messages of the Plate.
Interesting conversations on The Plate in the blogosphere:
Food Politics
Small Bites
Monica @ Nutrition Over Easy
.
Read more...
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