The New Healthier Plate

Finally, after 19 years with a complicated food pyramid that did little to guide us to a healthy lifestyle, the USDA has introduced the new icon for healthy living - "My Plate".  Is it a magic bullet to get everyone on track to better health?  Unfortunately no, but it sure beats the heck out of the old pyramid.  I love the simplicity of the visual, however I really think the new guidelines surprised a lot of people.  I heard several times, "Wow we really should fill half of our plate with fruits and vegetables?"  Maybe half of your plate is not filled with fruits and veggies right now, but it is a great goal to work toward.  I remember learning about the food pyramid in elementary school, but I don't think it actually taught me anything about how I should be constructing an individual meal.  This new icon is a great visual for our children of what a healthy plate looks like.  Maybe not the magic bullet, but I am happy to see this new tool that many will be using to promote a healthy lifestyle to a broader audience.

The New Plate
It's an icon that works, says WebMD nutrition director Kathleen Zelman, RD.
"We now have an easy-to-understand layout of what constitutes a healthy meal," Zelman says. "Whether you are grocery shopping, packing lunches, or assembling a meal on a plate, the new food plate icon will serve as a constant reminder of the essential ingredients for a nutritious meal -- five easy pieces."

The icon makes it clear that fruits and veggies should make up half of your meal, while protein is the smallest part of the plate. The grain portion is a bit larger and still offers the advice to "make half your grains whole," which some nutritionists say leaves too much room for less healthy refined grains such as white rice and white bread.

Other top-line advice accompanying the icon is less controversial:

• Balance calories by enjoying food but eating less, and by avoiding oversized portions.
• Eat more good stuff: Make half the plate fruit and vegetables, switch to nonfat or low-fat milk.

• Eat less bad stuff: Look for lower-sodium soups, breads, and frozen meals; drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Food Pyramid History
The 2010-2011 dietary guidelines are neither the first nor the last Americans will see. Federal law requires the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services to update the guidelines every five years.

But even before this mandate, the USDA has been issuing dietary advice. The first set of guidelines came in 1894, when Wilbur Olin Atwater, PhD, wrote a USDA Farmers' Bulletin suggesting that Americans should eat fewer fats and sugars, exercise more, and watch their calories.

Various USDA food guides through the 1950s stressed important foods that should serve as the foundation of a healthy diet. These guides took various approaches to make sure Americans ate enough of different kinds of foods to avoid malnutrition. By the 1970s, however, too little food was no longer a problem: Too much food was.

In 1977, a U.S. Senate committee published Dietary Goals for the United States. This revolutionary document stressed eating fewer of the foods linked to chronic diseases -- particularly fatty meats, cholesterol, fatty acids, sugars, and salt.

The USDA says it did not adopt these goals because they "were so different from usual food patterns." Others have blamed influence from the beef and dairy industries for delaying USDA action until 1979, when a watered-down version of the advice, the "Hassle-Free Guide to a Better Diet," advised more moderate intake of fats, sweets, and alcohol.

In 1980, the USDA put out its first official Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These guidelines continued to stress the foods that should form the foundation of a healthy diet. But in the early 1980s, the USDA began thinking more about the total diet, rather than nutrition basics.

By 1990, the guidelines began to promote eating patterns based on moderation and variety instead of on dietary restriction. In 1992, based on an icon already in use in Sweden, the USDA came out with its first Food Pyramid.

The base of the pyramid, suggesting the foods one should eat the most, was "bread, cereal, rice, and pasta." This changed with the 2005 "MyPyramid," which did away with the building-block approach but which many found far too busy and cluttered to be a useful tool.

MyPyramid is not actually dead. The USDA intends to keep it, and the many online tools that come with it, live for those who find it useful.

Resource:  "USDA Ditches Food Pyramid for a Healthy Plate" by Daniel J. DeNoon

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST?
I chose to share this recipe with you because it of course fits perfectly on "My Plate" and can be prepped the night before and baked in the morning, but also because peaches and blueberries are in season and I just cannot get enough of their amazing flavor.  I am a little sad to say that after this dish, we are down to only about 1 1/2 cups of blueberries left from Moorhead Blueberry Farm.  Amazingly, they have really stayed so fresh and delicious for over a week.

Peach Blueberry French Toast

Servings:  6

Cooking Spray
1 large whole-wheat baguette or other hearty whole grain loaf (about 8 ounces)
6 whole eggs
1 cup low-fat milk
1 t vanilla extract
4 cups sliced peaches, fresh or frozen
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
1/2 lemon, juice and zest
3 T brown sugar
1/4 t ground cinnamon

Spray a 9 x 13" baking dish with cooking spray.  Slice the bread into 1/2" cubes and spread on bottom of pan.  Whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla.  Pour the egg mixture over the bread in the pan.  In a medium bowl, toss peaches with lemon juice, lemon zest and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.  Scatter the peaches evenly on top of bread.  Sprinkle blueberries over peaches and bread.  Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar and cinnamon over the top.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Uncover and bake for 40 minutes.  Can be served with a drizzle of vanilla yogurt and/or maple syrup and a side of canadian bacon.

Here's to fresh, fast, and fantastic food!