The new MyPlate icon of the five essential food groups unveiled at a press conference by the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion on June 2, 2011 translates the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans into a familial and familiar visual image, the dinner plate.
MyPlate, two years in design, is the federal government's visual aid to promote health, lower risk of chronic diseases, and reduce overweight and obesity through nutrition and physical education.
Food Groups on MyPlate
The colorful plate graphic is easy to understand, remember, and versatile in its use with preschooler to geriatric populations.
The divided circular plate, not unlike divided plates for babies and toddlers, has four unequal color-coded quadrants: red for fruits and green for vegetables on half the plate and brown for grains and purple for protein rounding out the other half. Portion size for each group is indicated by the size of the quadrant on the plate.
The dairy food group is a small blue circle off and to the right of the plate where the beverage usually is placed at the place setting.
The symbolic plate atop a place mat is a single place setting suggesting a sit down meal and a conscious intent to fill one’s plate to match the model.
The USDA model plate follows the lead of several health promotion organizations like the American Diabetes Association and the American Institute for Cancer Research that use visual plate model images to direct meal planning.
Applying MyPlate
At the USDA’s unveiling ceremony first lady Michelle Obama cautioned that although MyPlate is a simple icon for children to understand, the image alone will not stem the obesity epidemic and give all children access to fresh fruits and vegetables daily or to at least an hour of vigorous outdoor exercise each day. How parents, teachers, and caregivers integrate MyPlate into daily food experiences can make a difference though.
In considering the first lady’s initiative with the White House kitchen garden as part of her national Let’s Move program to thwart childhood obesity, one of the strongest extensions and applications of MyPlate is the creation of MyGarden.
MyPlate converts concretely to MyGarden as fast as children can draw a circle on the ground. Backyard, schoolyard, or community gardening is one framework to transport the icon into exercise and healthy eating practices. Growing food develops an understanding of the relationships between agriculture, food, diet, exercise and health. And gardening involves exercise, lots of it.
From MyPlate to MyGarden
Using the MyPlate visual as the basic template for a garden implies a circular garden divided into the four sections represented on the plate. The USDA website provides lists of sample fruits, vegetables, grains and protein for each food group. From these lists garden planners can select seasonal crops.
One illustrative garden-plant selection plant list for a mid-western summer food garden follows:
Fruits
- Blueberries
- Cantaloupe
- Grape
- Strawberries
- Watermelon
Vegetables
- Carrots
- Corn
- Cucumbers
- Onions
- Spinach
- Tomatoes
- Zucchini
Grain
- Amaranth
- Barley
- Buckwheat
- Millet
- Oats
- Popcorn
- Rye
Protein
- Black beans
- Edamame
- Garbanzo beans
- Lentils
- Peanuts
- Pumpkin
- Sunflowers
MyGarden can have any number of themes depending on gardener inclination and imagination. For example, ethnic origin, favorite recipes, chronic illness prevention, or region may influence themes. All gardens will be influenced by seasonal conditions.
Bring Back Seasonality
Seasonal changes affect human activities. Just as we change our wardrobe for seasonal weather, growing food requires seasonal accommodations, which in turn affect diet.
The Slow Food movement, rise of local farmer’s markets, seasonal chefs like Alice Waters and John Ash, and four-season gardeners like Elliott Coleman and Barbara Damrosch celebrate seasonality.
The USDA’s MyPlate has the potential to serve up garden-fresh food year round at schools across the country via MyGarden. Already the USDA Food and Nutrition Services has in place a Farm to School initiative to connect selected K-12 schools with local farms and farmers so seasonal local produce is prepared in school cafeterias. Some School to Farm programs break ground for school and community food gardens for local lunchrooms.
From MyGarden to MyPlate
The cycle of life in the garden is replicated on one’s plate throughout the year.
When MyGarden fills MyPlate at mealtime, the US population can, in time, reverse the current diet-related chronic diseases.
MyPlate can generate a bountiful harvest of ideas for human health and nutrition education.
Sources
- Coleman, Elliott. Four-season Harvest. White River Junction, VT: Chelsey Green Publishing, 1992.
- Glover, Debbie, MyPlate Simplifies Meal Planning, St. Tammany News website June 4, 2011
- Melnick, Meredith, USDA Ditches Food Pyramid for a Plate, Time Heartland website June 2, 2011
- Nestle, Marion. What Will USDA’s Food Plate Look Like? Food Politics website
- Seasonal Chef website Interview with Alice Waters July 1996
- USDA MyPlate Press Conference video at USDA website
- Eat Smart, Move More SC website
- USDA Choose MyPlate website
- USDA Farm to School website
Arlene Marturano - Arlene Marturano, an educator, consultant, master gardener, and writer advocates gardens as a context and gardening as a tool for ...
