The shift is part of Michelle Obama's fight against childhood obesity, and is meant to help Americans visualize portion sizes in a more accurate way. I get it, the pyramid helps us visualize the scale of the foods in comparison to each other, but doesn't translate that to your actual plate and in recent years I never fail to be shocked at the increasingly large portion sizes we are faced with in restaurants. Our sense of scale is completely off kilter and in my weight loss I've discovered time and time again, that its not always what I eat, but how much of it I eat. I can still indulge, but it matters how big the portion is. When did quantity mean quality?
When I think back to how my parents grew up, and even the stories of my grandmother growing up, one thing is certain, growing up in the South people did not eat low calorie. My great-grandmother baked a pie every day for dessert, and she started cooking dinner in the early afternoon. So what are the big differences? Fresh foods being used over canned/frozen/processed versions. What else? Portion size. Back then, she was using full cream, rich cheeses, homemade butter and more. But nothing was in huge amounts. And guess what, they are petite in their pictures!
But did you know that the USDA has been doing food guides for nearly 100 years? There's a great article in the Huffington Post on it here - where you can see them all.
Most of us are only familiar with the food pyramid, but check out this one from 1916 about food for children.
I think the moral of the story is right, we need to readjust our portion size settings, the plate helps, but I think it could still be even better. It could be more clear on suggested daily portions and caloric intake. There are some cool interactive tools available for free though, so you can track your food intake daily, as well as your physical activity. Check out myplate at http://www.choosemyplate.gov/index.html
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