Nutrition guidelines

• ALSO KNOWN AS: MyPlate
• ANATOMY OR SYSTEM AFFECTED: All

DEFINITION: Nutritional recommendations that educate people to consume certain portions of varied foods to acquire nutrients, expand peoples’ awareness of nutrition, and demonstrate how they can adjust eating and exercise habits to enhance their health.

Introduction

In April 2005, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) updated its 1992 food pyramid to a diagram called MyPyramid; this was done several months after the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Obesity rates, particularly in children, had increased government concerns about providing more effective nutritional guidance. The HHS estimated that 65 percent of adults in the United States were overweight, and more than 30 percent were obese. Many diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancers, are associated with excess body weight. While the nutrition guidelines have undergone further changes throughout the twenty-first century, weight remained a key public health issue, with almost 43 percent of Americans fighting obesity by the early 2020s.

MyPyramid consisted of six vertical colored sections that represented food groups: grains (orange), vegetables (green), fruit (red), oils and fats (yellow), dairy (blue), and meats and beans (purple). A drawing of a human figure climbing steps on the pyramid’s left side symbolized physical activity. The width of each area indicated proportions of those foods that should be eaten daily to attain an adequate intake of vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients. Pyramid variations offered nutritional suggestions for people with diverse dietary needs, including pregnant or lactating women, recognizing that individuals’ metabolisms differ according to the physical demands on their bodies.

Individuals could provide details about their age, gender, height, and exercise habits on MyPyramid's website in order to generate a nutritional profile of their daily calorie expenditure and the recommended measurements that they should eat from each food category to create a diet of varied foods rich in nutrients. Recommendations incorporated food group options such as whole or refined grain and vegetable types including dark green and starchy plants. The website presented menus based on these suggestions. The MyPyramid Tracker enabled users to monitor their eating and exercising behaviors.

In September 2005, the USDA introduced its MyPyramid for Kids. Educational activities stressed daily exercise and consumption of whole grains, low-fat dairy foods, vegetables, and fruit. The USDA introduced a Spanish-language pyramid in December 2005.

Six years later, in June 2011, a new diagram representing updated US nutrition guidelines was introduced: MyPlate. Championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, the plate image replaced the pyramid with a simpler, easier-to-understand reminder of what foods, and what portion sizes of these foods, should be on one's plate. The circular image shows a "plate" divided into four food groups. Vegetables (green) and fruits (red) take up half of the plate, with vegetables overtaking more than half of that area. On the right side of the plate are whole grains (orange) and protein (purple), with whole grains taking up more than half of that side. A smaller circle sits to the top right of the plate, representing dairy (blue).

While the plate itself is simple, the campaign behind it is much more comprehensive. The MyPlate website, MyPlate.gov, created by the USDA, provides numerous educational materials for a healthy, active lifestyle. The website's materials include variations on the plate diagram for children, pregnant women, and older adults; healthy eating and exercise advice; ways to track one's calorie intake and physical activity; and more.

The healthy lifestyle initiative cost about $2 million to roll out in various phases, from focusing on getting Americans to make half of their plate fruits and vegetables, to focusing on helping them avoid oversized portions, to replacing sugary drinks with water. Later phases have included the MyPlate Kids' Place initiative and the MyPlate on Campus initiative, both released in 2013. The latter recruits college students to encourage their campus to become active, healthy eaters. The former is designed for children ages eight to twelve and provides information for parents and educators, including recipes, games, and activity sheets for children.

Acceptance and Criticism

Reaction to the 2005 food pyramid was mixed. Nine months after the pyramid was publicized, its website had been accessed approximately 1.2 billion times and more than 500,000 registered users had utilized MyPyramid Tracker. Groups endorsing MyPyramid included the American Heart Association, American Dietetic Association, and School Nutrition Association. Some nutritionists adapted MyPyramid to design nutritional programs. Tufts University created a Modified MyPyramid for Older Adults, emphasizing the best nutrients for geriatric consumers and supplemental vitamin and calcium sources.

In April 2005, General Mills was the first food manufacturer to incorporate the food pyramid on its packaging. ConAgra Foods started simplifying MyPyramid information for consumers on labels in 2008. The Grocery Manufacturers of America sponsored MyPyramid information printed in the children’s periodical Weekly Reader. Many food producers increased manufacturing of whole grain products to match expanded demand due to the pyramid stressing benefits of those foods.

Some critics claimed that lobbyists representing various sectors of the food industry influenced the USDA to promote their goods through the food pyramid. Many critics stated that MyPyramid did not present consumers with the healthiest options possible. Some physicians promoted alternatives to the guide. Heart surgeon Robert D. Willix Jr., who asserted that food pyramids contribute to obesity, urged people to instead follow his Cenegenics Medical Institute Food Diamond, introduced in 2008, which stresses the consumption of water, vegetables, and lean proteins.

Similar reactions occurred with the introduction of MyPlate. Many people were happy to see MyPyramid scrapped, having found it vague and confusing, and appreciated having a much simpler diagram to work with—the MyPlate diagram shows what a healthy diet should look like without confusing consumers trying to figure out what a portion size actually is. While some criticized the government for interfering with what their children eat, others expressed appreciation for MyPlate's initiative to improve the nutritional value of school lunches. The MyPlate website, including the MyPlate Plan, MyPlate Kitchen, and other tools for monitoring one's diet and physical activity, became a popular resource.

Some in the medical field, though praising MyPlate as an improvement over MyPyramid, found fault with the plate diagram, however. Once again, Willix criticized the USDA's choice of diagram and worked to promote his Cenegenics Food Diamond as a customizable tool for an individual's specific dietary needs, including those with diabetes and heart disease. Willix also criticized the USDA's inclusion of dairy in MyPlate, claiming that it can cause numerous health and digestive problems and that there are other sources that provide the nutrients found in dairy.

Some in the scientific community found fault with MyPlate not because of its design but because of its simplification. USDA nutrition guidelines may help Americans make better food decisions. However, before the government creates their guidelines, a scientific panel makes recommendations based on the latest research, and these recommendations are not necessarily all followed during the creation of a reader-friendly chart. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, this could mean that many of the panel's health recommendations end up ignored. Harvard released its own modified version of the plate diagram, which features a higher ratio of vegetables, balances protein and whole grains as equal, emphasizes water over dairy (though MyPlate also emphasizes the importance of water outside of the diagram itself), and adds healthy oils.

Additionally, nutrition guideline diagrams set the standard for all federal nutritional programs, including public school lunches. This can be a good thing, and yet Harvard has argued that if certain recommendations from the scientific panel are ignored, the health of students could be impacted negatively. The guidelines influence what foods Americans buy, at least for their children. Therefore, changes to the guidelines, whether in the shape of a pyramid, a plate, or another diagram altogether, can both help and hurt the food industry while influencing the health of Americans.

Perspective and Prospects

The US government first offered Americans nutritional recommendations in the 1930s because of food scarcities during the Great Depression and then during World War II. The government’s basic four food groups included meats, milk, starch, and vegetables and fruit. High-calorie diets and inactive lifestyles contributed to an increasing number of Americans gaining extra weight and developing cardiovascular and other health problems in the following decades. By 1980, the government developed federal dietary guidelines that nutrition experts were expected to revise approximately every five years.

The USDA endeavored to create a visual image to assist consumers in choosing nutritious foods. In 1992, the USDA introduced its first triangle-shaped design, with horizontal sections indicating specific food groups and numbers of servings. Foods with the greatest serving amounts, from the grain and cereal group, were located at the base, and decreasing quantities of servings were placed toward the peak, where oils, fats, and sugars were clustered. That pyramid did not specify portion sizes of servings. Although 80 percent of consumers said they knew that the food pyramid existed, fewer than 10 percent followed its recommendations, mainly because they were unable to comprehend how to apply them.

Nutrition groups appropriated aspects of the USDA’s food pyramid. The Boston Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust created food pyramids for Mediterranean, Latin American, and Asian diets. Other pyramids addressed deficiencies that health professionals perceived in the USDA’s pyramid. The Mayo Clinic designed a pyramid that stressed the importance of exercise and more fruit and vegetable consumption than was suggested by the USDA pyramid.

On an international scale, the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization released nutritional guidelines in the form of a table in 2002. The table laid out dietary factors ranging from different types of fats to different types of carbohydrates, among other nutrients, with daily intake recommendations labeled in percentages or grams. A modification of the table in the form of a pyramid was also created to emphasize certain dietary factors, such as unrefined carbohydrates and protein, that a person should restrict in order to prevent chronic diseases and obesity and to promote dental health. Continuing into the twenty-first century, the WHO continued to offer updated guidelines to promote overall health, but also as a global public health initiative to prevent malnutrition.

Advances in nutrition research by the early twenty-first century necessitated revising USDA food information. By 2004, the USDA sought to improve the 1992 food pyramid, increasing educational features and promoting physical activity to strengthen the 2005 MyPyramid. Given the confusing nature of this pyramid and the push for Americans to achieve healthier lifestyles by such proponents as First Lady Michelle Obama, the pyramid diagram was replaced with the MyPlate diagram in 2011. The much simpler design of this diagram is intended to be a starting point for achieving a healthy lifestyle; numerous additional materials with dietary recommendations for different groups of people have been created, along with advice regarding physical activity. The resources on the MyPlate website are intended for anyone to access for educational purposes and to measure one's health in terms of diet and exercise.

As for international nutritional guidelines, the WHO's Department of Nutrition for Health and Development has dedicated its website to continuous updates of its nutrition recommendations based on the latest studies, including such topics as how much iron, calcium, folic acid, sodium, vitamin A, and other nutrients should be consumed by children of certain ages, pregnant women, and others.

Bibliography

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