Forget the food pyramid: now it’s a plate

The government seeks to tame our appetites with a new communications push that is drawing praise.

First the government tried teaching us how to eat with the helpful visual aid of a food pyramid.

Then it turned out the carbs they were pushing made us fat, so rather than flipping the pyramid upside-down, they revised it.

Now they’ve thrown out the triangular communications concept and in favor of a new, circular symbol: the plate.

So far the U.S. Agriculture Department’s communications campaign is winning praise. The Center for Science in the Public Interest calls the graphic “a huge improvement over the inscrutable food pyramid.

“While no one graphic can communicate every nuance of healthy eating, this easy-to-understand illustration will help people remember what their own plate should look like,” its director says.

The blog U.S. Food Policy states, “USDA’s new food plate, unveiled today, makes a great impression. It communicates proportionality in frank terms, just like the original Food Guide Pyramid.”

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