Plate Replaces Food Pyramid

The food pyramid is no more. The nutrition icon long derided as way too complicated has been replaced by a plate divided into portions, notes NPR. Fruits and veggies take up more than half its space, and meat doesn't get a mention. (Instead, there's a "protein" section, along with one for grains.) Michelle Obama helped the USDA roll it out and praised its simplicity. Parents are busy, but "we do have time to take a look at our kids’ plates," she said. "As long as they’re half full of fruits and vegetables, and paired with lean proteins, whole grains and low-fat dairy, we’re golden."

It's also going over well in the media: "A huge improvement over the baffling MyPyramid icon that it replaces, MyPlate is as easy as pie to understand," writes Jennifer LaRue Huget at the Washington Post. "Its designers smartly saved the fine print about how to actually fill the wedge-shaped spots on the plate for the we site, ChooseMyPlate.gov." Mark Trumbull at the Christian Science Monitor, however, thinks dairy might be getting underplayed because it's off to the side of the plate in a circle (like a glass of milk).