The food pyramid is the model of a healthy diet in the United States. Maybe you had to memorize its rainbow stripes in school.
But the USDA, the agency in charge of nutrition, has moved to a new symbol: a colorful plate - called MyPlate - with some of the same messages:
• Eat a variety of foods.
• Eat less of some foods and more of others.
The pyramid had six vertical stripes to represent the five food groups and oils. The plate features four sections (vegetables, fruits, grains and proteins), plus a serving of milk products in blue.
The big message is that fruits and vegetables take up half the plate with lots of vegetables is a little larger than the fruit section.
And like pyramid, where the stripes are of different thicknesses, the plate is divided so that the heel section is larger than the protein section. Why? Because nutrition experts recommend eating more vegetables than fruit and more grains than protein foods.
The divided plate also aims to discourage overly large portions, which can cause weight gain.
