The Latest Nutrition Guidelines:MyPlate

       If you went to elementary school in the 70s, like I did, you learned there were four food groups:  dairy, meat, fruits and vegetables (lumped together), and grains.  In fourth grade, I remember having to write down everything I ate for a week, and reporting it, each day, aloud, in class.  The exercise was supposed to teach us to eat foods from each of the four groups at every meal, and it worked:  still, today, when planning meals, I think about the four food groups.

     Well, nutrition guidance, you’ve come a long way, baby.  The four food groups have been out for decades, replaced by food pyramids, which have now been replaced by a system called MyPlate (choosemyplate.gov).

Make your plate look like MyPlate.

     The system was designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the same folks who brought us the food pyramid), and while the concept is simple, the application is a bit more tricky.  You’ll want to visit the Web site, but these are the main points:

1. Instead of thinking in terms of food groups or a food pyramid, picture a plate.   For each meal, one-half of this plate should be covered in fruits and vegetables, one-fourth should be covered in whole grains, and the final fourth should be covered in foods rich in protein.  A small circle at the top of the plate (think of a glass) represents dairy, which should also be present at each meal. 






Fruits and vegetables:  each plays a role in good nutrition.



2. All fruits and vegetables are not created equal.  While half what you eat at each meal should be fruits and vegetables, you can’t eat half a plate of watermelon for every meal, day after day, and expect to be healthy.  You need variety. 

          MyPlate divides vegetables into five groups:  dark green ( such as broccoli, romaine, spinach); starchy (includes potatoes, corn, and, surprisingly, green peas); red/orange (think carrots, pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, red peppers, tomatoes); beans/peas (all types of beans and peas except green peas); and others (asparagus, avocados, zucchini, onions, beets, cauliflower, mushrooms, green peppers).  

          MyPlate does not divide fruits into groups, but it does recommend a variety of fruits in order to get the right amounts of necessary nutrients.

Each member of the family needs different amounts of essential nutrients.

3. All bodies do not need the same amounts of the same foods.  On the MyPlate Web site, you’ll find the amounts that each person in your family should be eating from each of the five groups (vegetables, fruits, grains, protein, and dairy) each day.  You will also find the proper amount that each person should be eating from each vegetable subgroup each week.





A proper diet can prevent cancer, high blood pressure, and other diseases.



4. Proper eating will promote health and ward off disease.   According to the Web site, eating according to MyPlate standards will help you avoid cancer, kidney stones, bone loss, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, constipation, diverticulosis (infection caused from food trapped in the intestinal lining), heart attack, stroke, obesity, and Type II diabetes.  

     After I finished reading these guidelines, I couldn’t help but realize they almost exactly described the diet of my Grandmother Williams, who lived to be one hundred and four (she passed away a year ago). 

     At Grandma’s Thanksgiving dinners, we would sometimes chuckle at the variety of vegetables on the table:   string beans, corn, yams, potatoes, carrot sticks, celery sticks, beets, peas.  There would also usually be what she called “mustard pickles,” which were pieces of cauliflower, carrots, green peppers, and onions marinated in a mustard vinaigrette.  Our plates were at least half-full of vegetables at these events, if not three-fourths full. 

     And the vegetable array was not just for Thanksgiving:  it was also included at other formal meals, like Christmas, Easter, and Mother’s Day.  Even when Grandma dined alone (or with just one or two of us), there were always vegetables.  In the summer there were sliced tomatoes, cucumbers in vinegar, new potatoes, corn on the cob—all from her garden.  In the winter, she would used canned and frozen vegetables. 

     Grandma also followed the other guidelines from MyPlate (before they existed):  lots of fruit, much of which she bottled from her own trees; a moderate amount of meat; a lot of dairy products; and a lot of whole grains (oatmeal, whole wheat), although she wasn’t so fanatic that she’d never touch white bread.  Grandma was moderate in everything.

     Now, she did eat a lot of chocolate—and she used quite a bit of cream in her pies and other desserts (MyPlate wouldn’t exactly sanction these activities)—but when you’re out mowing your lawn at age 90, you can have some cream and chocolate.

     Grandma was quite healthy up until she died, at home, in her own bed.  She did have arthritis and macular degeneration, which left her nearly blind for the last decade of her life (sadly, she didn’t catch this soon enough, or it probably could have been cured—get those yearly eye exams!), but she had no heart problems, no cholesterol issues, no diabetes, no cancer.  She never had weight issues in her life—she was always slender, in-shape, and active.

     Thanks, Grandma, for your great example.  I hope I live to be a hundred and four.