MyPlate

This semester one of the classes I am taking is Nutrition. It is one of the undergraduate requirements for the 4 + 1 Health Master’s Program. We recently learned that the food guide pyramid has been replaced with something called “MyPlate”. As you can see in the graphic, the new image shows what portion of your meal should be grains, proteins, fruits, vegetables, and dairy. The website promotes eating more vegetables, more whole grains, and healthy and lean proteins. It is an improvement from the food guide pyramid in several ways. By looking at the food guide pyramid, it is very hard to tell the percentages of each food that you should eat in your daily diet by looking at a pyramid. I definitely think that MyPlate is a big improvement because it shows the portions on a plate. I think that a person can relate to this type of illustration more that a pyramid.

According to the plate, half of what you eat should be fruits and vegetables at each meal. The drink on the diagram is milk. The website is really neat and has some different features that can help with weight management and calculating calories. It also helps with telling some different ways to burn calories and increase physical activity. As a future physical educator, one of my favorite features on the website is the part that describes what physical activity is and why it is so important, as well as how much is really necessary every day. Many Americans are not educated on these facts and this is why the MyPlate website is so important. It is easy to use and easy to understand.