The USDA and Michelle Obama have unveiled a new guideline for daily nutrition. Buh-bye bread-heavy Food Pyramid, helloooo “My Plate.”
From ChooseMyPlate.com:
Balancing Calories
- Enjoy your food, but eat less.
- Avoid oversized portions.
Foods to Increase
- Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
- Make at least half your grains whole grains.
- Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.
Foods to Reduce
- Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals ― and choose the foods with lower numbers.
- Drink water instead of sugary drinks.
Wellllllll, not so fast, USDA! Can I just say: don’t hate on whole milk! If you’re promoting these guidelines for kids & women, a little whole milk goes a LONG way. Fat in milk = good fat, in moderation. I may be a fat kid, but I’m also a woman with fantabulous birthing hips (= healthy fat, once slimmer), and great teeth. Thanks, lifetime of whole milk! (though in small quantities – 1-2 servings a week)
Some pro-whole milk links:
Whole milk increases fertility!
Kids should whole milk until at least age 2, for healthy brain/nerve development
A pro-whole milk “natural fats” blog post
If you’re steadfastly anti-whole milk (many abhor the taste), at least drink 2%. I find pushing only fat free and 1% slightly dubious, especially for children. If you’re going to have a Milk Platform — go anti-flavored milk! Now THERE’S where we have a problem with children and milk.
Also, call me a skepticy-skeptic, but I think there’s still a bit too much emphasis on grains. Sure, you can ask people to “at least make them whole grains,” but come on – will that actually happen? Methinks schools will still insist on giving kids two servings of bread at lunch, which is CRAY-CRAY. I would have pushed more protein.
Of course, I don’t follow “food guidelines” such as this. Mostly, the question is how this new plate will effect kids and school lunch programs (to my mind). What do you think? Improvement on the Pyramid? A useless gesture? Emphasis in the wrong places?
Let’s discuss!
