The US government’s new MyPlate healthy-eating guide, launched last week, has been enthusiastically welcomed by a broad range of stakeholders, not least because it aims to communicate dietary advice to consumers simply and succinctly. Ben Cooper reports.

The importance the Obama administration has attached to tackling the obesity problem in the US was vividly illustrated last week by the high-profile launch of the Government’s MyPlate healthy-eating education concept by the First Lady, the Agriculture Secretary and the Surgeon General.

The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) MyPlate icon, the centrepiece of a nutritional guidance platform which can be accessed at www.ChooseMyPlate.gov, is designed to help consumers make healthier food choices. The plate graphic emphasises the fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy food groups, reflecting the advice contained in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, launched in January.

According to the USDA, the online resource is aimed at providing simple, actionable advice for consumers, identified as necessary by the Child Obesity Task Force, which was convened by the Obama administration in February 2010. It replaces the previous MyPyramid government dietary education concept.

The First Lady’s personal involvement in tackling the obesity issue, through her Let’s Move campaign, and President Obama’s commitment to addressing the problem have certainly hurried things along since he came to office. However, the launch of the MyPlate concept is arguably among the most visible demonstrations of that political will to date.

The widespread support for the new concept, from industry and NGOs alike, may be borne partly out of a desire to be “on-message” with regard to the First Lady’s campaign but it also suggests the initiative represents a genuine step forward and a distinct improvement on what has gone before.

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The National Restaurant Association said it applauded the initiative, describing the new icon as a “useful resource” for consumers, while the Food Marketing Institute, which represents food retailers, also welcomed the initiative. Weight Watchers International, meanwhile, described the MyPlate concept as “an important step”. It was also welcomed by organisations such as the School Nutrition Association, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

Some specialist industry groups, notably those representing the meat, dairy and bakery sectors, pointed out that as the MyPlate concept advocates a balanced diet it implicitly supports the contribution their particular food groups make to such diets. The opportunity for some unabashed industry advocacy to one side, this reflects how the concept resonates with the general food industry position that there are no bad foods, only bad diets. 

A few experts have suggested that some of the messaging, for example around proteins and fats and oils, is too simplistic and needs to be more specific. However, given that the previous programme was heavily criticised for trying to convey too much information, it is clear that the Government has made simplicity the first priority here. 

And that simplicity appears to have been welcomed by the vast majority of observers. Among them, Marion Nestle, Professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, who gave “high marks” to the USDA for a concept that was “easy to understand”. David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner and Professor of Paediatrics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, said the MyPlate icon “shows more clearly than the Pyramid what healthy eating is”, and was “a major step forward” in the drive to promote health and prevent disease.

Meanwhile, Bethany Thayer of the American Dietetic Association said the key aim was to get across the “basic messages”, for example on fruit and vegetables and portion control. “The feedback we’ve gotten for quite a long time is that consumers are confused about all the different nutrition messages,” Thayer told just-food. The use of the plate graphic was “intuitive”, she added, and the concept had been well received by campaigners and most crucially by consumers. 

Possibly to underline the comparison, the MyPyramid visuals have been retained in an archive section on the USDA website for “interested health professionals and nutrition educators”, and the former concept, originally launched in 1992 and revised – and made even more complicated – in 2005, does appear rather impenetrable and over-complicated in comparison.

This is certainly the view of Katherine Tucker, Professor and chair of the department of health sciences at the Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University. “The most recent food Pyramid was confusing and difficult to follow. It provided a lot of detailed information tailored to individual needs, but its complexity prevented optimum usage. With MyPlate, experts want to simplify the message. After holding several focus groups, they’ve come up with the image of a dinner plate, which some countries have already implemented.” However, even Professor Tucker called for more detail advice to be incorporated, notably with regard to whole grains.

Judging by the MyPyramid experience, the USDA is likely to be cautious about further elaboration. And as Thayer and other observers stress, the MyPlate concept represents the primary reference point for consumers that can be complemented by other initiatives and information sources. She added that the industry is beginning to contribute to providing some of this important complementary advice by including more nutritional information on-pack. “They are embracing the fact that they do play a role in communicating good nutrition messages.”

So the food pyramid has been consigned to history. And one does wonder why it lasted for two decades. Not only was it over-complicated but, while a plate seems an entirely logical way of representing the proportions of food one should eat, as a means of encouraging sensible eating and portion control a “pyramid of food” seems a rather dangerous notion.

By the same token, officials have been at pains to stress that although the circular segmented graphic is technically a rudimentary pie-chart, it is definitely a plate and not a pie. While pie is certainly something American consumers could easily relate to, given the aim of the initiative, fostering that particular affinity may be deemed undesirable.