• by Karlene Lukovitz , June 2, 2011

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's just-unveiled replacement for the decades-old, complex and much-criticized food pyramid graphic -- a plate divided into food groups shown in the recommended portions -- is meeting with a largely positive response from groups ranging from nutritionists and consumer advocates to food producers.  

The new icon -- along with simple, bulleted key recommendations being featured on the USDA's new ChooseMyPlate.gov site and in other messaging -- aim to boil the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (released in January) down to readily digestible bites.

The key recommendations, as now summarized by USDA: Enjoy your food, but eat less; avoid oversized portions; make half of your plate fruits and vegetables; make at least half of your grains whole grains; switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk; compare sodium in foods like soup, bread and frozen meals and choose the foods with lower numbers; and drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Some examples of positive reactions thus far:

• Margo G. Wootan, nutrition policy director for nutritional advocacy nonprofit The Center for Science in the Public Interest: "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. It likely will shock most people into recognizing that they need to eat a heck of a lot more vegetables and fruits. Most people are eating about a quarter of a plate of fruits or vegetables, not a half a plate as recommended.

"Wisely, USDA is investing in a comprehensive campaign to get the new food plate and key healthy eating messages out to the public. USDA's simple messages ... prioritize the 95-page Dietary Guidelines for Americans into key dietary actions that can help people avoid heart disease, diabetes and other nutrition-related health problems."

• Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health, New York University: "The new plate icon makes it clear that healthy eating means lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and for that alone it is a big step forward. The plate is easy to understand. You don't need a computer to use it. It lets you fill your plate with whatever foods you like without worrying about portion numbers. Best of all are the messages that come with it. Enjoy your food! Yes! High marks to USDA for this one."

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Nestle added that the clear emphasis on vegetables and fruit and smaller portions of protein, grains and dairy (dairy is represented by a cup-like circle next to the plate) appear to indicate that the USDA has moved toward more focus on nutrition and less on the interests of various food group producers. "The Department of Agriculture has a long history of being in bed with the food industry, and this is moving beyond that," Nestle said. "It's not moving as far as I would like, but it's pretty courageous."

• Leslie G. Sarasin, president and CEO, Food Marketing Institute: "The new USDA food graphic offers Americans a clear visual of a healthy plate representing the full spectrum of nutritious foods we all need in our diets. As FMI member companies seek to feed families and enrich lives, this new icon will serve supermarket shoppers as a vivid reminder of what to put in their shopping carts so that it will later become part of a well-balanced plate."

The USDA also reported that it plans to use social media as one public awareness-building platform, and to add interactive weight-management and exercise-tracking tools to its informational site.

Of course, as Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler points out, actually persuading Americans to change their eating habits to reflect the plate's makeup and the other recommendations is a daunting challenge. "If we could eat meals in the manner that's being suggested by the new plate, we can reverse this epidemic [of obesity and diabetes]," he stressed to the L.A. Times.

And as would be expected, not everyone is convinced that these latest communications efforts have value.

"This is an example of bureaucrats wasting time and money -- $2 million -- on a futile effort," contends Adam Hanft, CEO of marketing firm Hanft Projects, who describes himself as a consumer culture expert and branding strategist and is a blogger for CNN, AOL News, FastCompany.com and other outlets. "In a time when people are mocking government waste and inefficiency, the government isn't doing itself any favors."

Indeed, in Hanft's view, the government's various guideline and messaging approaches over the past many decades have been a waste of time and money. "Everyone knows what to eat more of and what to eat less of," he maintains. "Educating people about food is like educating them about adultery.

"We know what works: incentives," he continues. "Time and time again, we've seen that there's a limit to what people will spend for stuff that's not healthy."