The New Food Pyramid

Cool! I can eat a whole pyramid of food and be healthy! Well, not exactly. But the revisions to the food pyramid have improved it considerably. They've added physical activity as a part of the program, and instead of the old four basic food groups, they now have 6 groups; grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meats & beans, and oils. They do a pretty good job of identifying which are better and which are worse.

One complaint that's often voiced about the USDA (and some other government agencies) is the dual role of promotion and education. These two roles often run counter to each other...how can the USDA promote beef AND potentially advise against it due to a Mad Cow Disease outbreak? But, the important thing is that they have done a pretty good job of improving the pyramid, and my first look at the sight found it informative and not overly beholden to the promotion side of the house.

You can find the new website for the UDSA's new food pyramid at: http://mypyramid.gov/