UC Berkeley nutritionist welcomes MyPlate

USDA introduced MyPlate yesterday.

MyPyramid served as the USDA's food guide icon from 2005 to 2011.

The associate director of the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health, Gail Woodward-Lopez, said USDA's new food icon, MyPlate, is more in line with current nutrition science, according to The Bay Citizen.

"It has the potential to be more effective," Woodward-Lopez was quoted. "The pyramid involved counting the number of servings for the day. So when do you make that decision? When you go to bed at night?"

She said the plate in consistent with the Center's findings on obesity prevention for children and adults: "Lots of fruits and vegetables, less refined grains, don't overdo the protein."

Something interesting I've noticed about the news coverage of MyPlate - including the Bay Citizen story - is references to the pyramid it replaces. The original Food Guide Pyramid, introduced in 1992, was replaced by MyPyramid 2005. However, some journalists have ignored the six years of MyPyramid, declaring that MyPlate replaces the long-retired hierarchical Food Guide Pyramid.

See the CNN story (image below) for another example of this common misunderstanding.