The USDA has recently released it’s new concept, the food plate, to replace the iconic food pyramid it introduced in 1992 (and modified in 2005).

At its release, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack criticized the food pyramid for being “too complex to serve as a quick and easy guide for American families” – I completely agree, and have always felt this way.  The food pyramid was the kind of thing you could completely forget after browsing – that, or leave with the message “eat lots of carbohydrates” (a terrible recommendation for most, in my eyes) – far from ideal.

Michelle Obama asked, “What’s more simple than a plate? I’m confident that families … can start using this today.“  Without a doubt, the visual cue of a plate is far more useful than the old pyramid – people can now use the USDA guidelines as they prepare meals, whereas before they were essentially given seemingly arbitrary goals to meet each day (which were not only quickly forgotten, but difficult to keep track of).

In my opinion, there are still problems with some of USDA’s suggestions, but there may never be consensus on such matters.  I also take issue with the fact that the only advice I can find on portion control is “Avoid oversized portions.”

I submit to you the “Tip of the Day” I found when I visited the MyPlate website while drafting this article:

Consider convenience when shopping. Buy pre-cut packages of fruit (such as melon or pineapple chunks) for a healthy snack in seconds.

I would actually argue the contrary – convenience should be avoided when shopping, as seeking it will usually pull you away from unadulterated, healthy choices, and towards commercialized, overpriced junk.  The above tip may be fine for a family with superfluous income, but items like pre-cut fruit and 100-calorie packs are usually overpriced and are just not what most families should be buying.  Eating healthy does take a bit of work, and we shouldn’t shy away from that (portion control, in particular, is an area where we would be wise to avoid having food corporations make decisions for us).

The above considered, I thought this would be a good time to share some of my own tips for healthy eating.  These are my bare-bones recommendations:

• No soda/pop, juice drinks, sports drinks, or fruit juices. This is #1 because I firmly believe it’s the best thing Americans can do for their health:  stop drinking your calories!  Drink water, milk, unsweetened tea or coffee, and eat fresh fruit instead of drinking juice (which is in most cases just as bad as soda).  I also believe we should be avoiding artificially-sweetened beverages, but this will be reserved for a future article (baby steps).

• Eat more fiber. Since before I even began my formal medical education, when people would ask me the one thing they could do to improve their diet, my answer was always fiber.  Fiber has been shown to lower cholesterol, control blood sugar levels, and help with weight loss and bowel health.  Research on fiber and colon cancer has been thus far equivocal, but I strongly suspect a protective effect will be revealed in the future.

• Eat protein at every meal. Like fiber, protein will help you feel satisfied after a meal (so will fat, as it slows the rate at which your stomach empties!).  Protein does not necessarily have to come from meat or eggs – beans, nuts, certain grains, and dairy are great sources of protein for those who avoid meat.  As a bonus, protein is more energetically costly to digest, giving it a higher Thermic Effect of Food (TEF).

• Use only natural fats & oils. Information about hydrogenated oils being linked to poor heart health has been well-disseminated, but they have also been linked to other health conditions including diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and even depression – we would do well to avoid them whenever we can.  Use real butter, olive oil, sesame oil, etc. and eat natural fatty foods (real peanut butter, plain dark chocolate, avocados, etc.).  One of my biggest pet peeves is low-fat peanut butter:  natural peanut butter (or better, almond butter) can be a good source of healthy fats, while reduced fat peanut butter is a good source of nothing (it’s processing essentially removes its health benefits and replaces them with fillers and sugar).

Don’t mistake the critical eye of the above paragraphs as disapproval – I think this overhaul is a step in the right direction and was long overdue.  Time will tell if American families will respond better to this educational tool than its predecessors.

James Haddad is a medical student who blogs at Abnormal Facies.

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