MyPlate Resource Guide

Help Decide if MyPlate is Helping or Hurting

Table of Contents

• What Should You Really Eat?
• The USDA MyPlate Made Simple
• Who Built MyPlate?
• Dietary Guidelines
• The Healthy Eating Pyramid and Healthy Eating Plate
• Other Alternatives to MyPlate
• Healthy Eating Index

Anywhere commercial restaurant equipment is used, there should be some awareness of nutrition.

In 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) replaced the Food Pyramid nutrition guide with MyPlate, the most recent set of dietary guidelines. The following is a starting point for research on understanding MyPlate.

What Should You Really Eat?

• Eight Healthy Eating Goals: The President's Council promotes programs and initiatives that motivate all people to live active, healthy lives.
• HelpGuide provides guidance to eating healthy through planning tips.
• Should you be "Eating Clean?": An article from the journal of Science-Based Medicine, an organization that examines the claims often found in other studies.
• Food Pyramids and Plates: What Should You Really Eat?: Harvard School of Public Health analyzes both the Food Pyramid and MyPlate, providing healthy guidelines to eating right.
• Should you really "Eat Your Breadgies?": CBC Radio - Canada talks about some of the healthier food choices, including veggies infused into bread.
• Food Pyramids - What Should You Really Eat?: Food and Behavior Research talks about Harvard's take on MyPlate.
• The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion article "Healthy Eating on a Budget" presents how to eat healthy without breaking the bank.
• Let's Move! is a comprehensive initiative launched by Michelle Obama, working to solve the problem of obesity within a generation.
• Pamela Oliver, a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, writes about, "How I Lost Weight."

The USDA MyPlate Made Simple

• MyPlate and Historical Food Pyramid Resources: The USDA's Food and Nutrition Information Center collects and disseminates information about food and human nutrition.
• Serving Up MyPlate: A Yummy Curriculum: The USDA's Food and Nutrition Center discusses how schools are importing MyPlate into their curriculum.
• MyPlate & Food Pyramid Resources: Nutrition.gov provides access to vetted food and nutrition information from across the federal government.
• SuperTracker helps you plan, analyze, and track your diet and physical activity.
• The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion shares some sample menus and recipes that fit their MyPlate outline.
• USDA Unveils New, Simple Tips to Stay Healthy, Active, and Fit: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack discusses his views on the USDA's MyPlate.
• KidsHealth provides a MyPlate food guide that's free of "doctor speak."

Who Built MyPlate?

• ChooseMyPlate - Partnering Programs lists the partnerships that came together to promote the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• What Is MyPlate?: The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the world's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.
• The University of Nebraska-Lincoln presents the benefits of using MyPlate to guide healthy eating.
• What is the MyPlate Food Guide?: A brief explanation of MyPlate, including the origin of the food guide.
• MyPlate, Dietary Guidelines and General Nutrition: The SNAP-Ed Connection is an online resource center sponsored by the USDA.
• About.com provides a guide to the USDA MyPlate.
• Who is Using MyPlate?: Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab takes a look at the implementation of MyPlate.
• Building MyPyramid and MyPlate is an article from Harvard Medical School's media and publishing division, Harvard Health Publications.

Dietary Guidelines

• Dietary Guidelines for Americans: The 2010 publication by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion discusses how the Dietary Guidelines for Americans provide guidance on how to eat healthy and avoid disease.
• On ChooseMyPlate.gov, there's an explanation of how the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are updated every five years.
• The USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotions provides a brochure with tips on how to eat healthy.
• The Weston A. Price Foundation provides principles of healthy diets and suggested dietary guidelines.
• The American Heart Association provides healthy diet guidelines with the intention to build healthier lives for people, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
• The Whole Grains Council shares the importance of whole grains in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• The President's Council supports healthy living for Americans by providing dietary guidelines and nutritional advice.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid and Healthy Eating Plate

• The Healthy Eating Plate, Harvard Health Publications' alternative to MyPlate.
• Healthy Eating Plate & Healthy Eating Pyramid: The Nutrition Source aims to provide timely, evidence-based information on diet and nutrition for the public.
• Healthy Eating Plate vs. USDA's MyPlate: A comparison between the two healthy eating guides.
• Food Guide Pyramid Becomes a Plate: KidsHealth explains the change going from pyramid to plate.
• Huffington Post article, "Harvard Healthy Eating Plate Tries to One-Up USDA's MyPlate, Meets Opposition."
• The Mayo Clinic discusses the keys to healthy eating whether you're following a pyramid or a plate.
• ABC News article "Harvard Researchers Unveil New Healthy Eating Plate."

Other Alternatives to MyPlate

• The Power Plate: A plant-based diet alternative to MyPlate by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
• The Healthy Living Pyramid: Australia's healthy food guide based on the Australian 2013 Dietary Guidelines.
• Plans for Healthy Eating: The National Institute on Aging provides guidance to seniors on utilizing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• The dLife Healthy Eating Plate: A food guide for diabetics and others who are monitoring their blood sugar.
• Precision Nutrition critiques MyPlate and offers an alternative.
• Modern Alternative Kitchen suggests ignoring the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• What Are the Flaws of MyPlate?: A panel of nutritionists critique MyPlate and offer suggestions for improvement.

Healthy Eating Index

• The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion describes the Healthy Eating Index, including 2005 and 2010 reports.
• The National Cancer Institute's explanation of the Healthy Eating Index.
• The Centers for Disease Control provides a description of the Healthy Eating Index.
• Michigan State University's Extension Education shares a brief on the Healthy Eating Index.
• The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research posted a video about how to apply the Healthy Eating Index.
• The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition posted a study designed to validate the use of the Healthy Eating Index to measure compliance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• The National Center for Biotechnology Information shares an abstract of a study to develop an index of overall diet quality.
• From the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a study on determining children's diet quality using the Healthy Eating Index.