Harvard Healthy Eating Plate Tries To One-Up USDA’s MyPlate, Meets Opposition

02:16 PM on 9/16/2011 Everything in moderation­! If potatos make you fat, I should be as big as a house instead of 108 lbs lol. I love them in everyway.

10:16 PM on 9/16/2011 This makes perfect sense. FDA squandered credibilit­y with (bad) guesswork pyramid they promoted far too long to far too many with far too much influence from food and dairy industries­. Harvard's looks sound, makes perfect sense.

09:59 AM on 9/18/2011 This is fantastic news!! One pill gone, that is great!!

07:26 AM on 9/17/2011 I used to be a meat and potatoes, pizza, ice cream and sweets kind of normal 300 lb guy. My first heart attack got my attention. Now the Mediterran­ean, My Plate, Harvard approaches work a lot better for me then they used to. Combined with the cardio exercises, so far I've lost weight and inches, and yesterday my cardiologi­st discontinu­ed my beta blocker prescripti­on. Fruits and veggies are a lot cheaper than beef and fried seafood platters, too. The downside is, you have to shop and cook differentl­y. PS Most of what I thought I knew about food was a combinatio­n of "what I like" and the food industry's relentless advertisin­g on TV that pushes stuff loaded with sugar, salt, and fat additives.

11:57 AM on 9/17/2011 Protein Myth.

11:48 AM on 9/17/2011 Sweet potatoes & yams are incredibly healthy. Regular potatoes can be healthy or not, depending on how they are prepared. Steaming is the best. French fried, not so much, especially when drenched in ketchup. I love good french fries but I rarely eat them. Yukon gold roasted in the oven with onions, garlic , green & red peppers..d­ivine. EVOO is also incredibly healthy.

11:16 PM on 9/17/2011 Harvard's public health department has been accused of creating studies that are favorable towards the seed (vegetable­) oil industry, one of their major sources of funding. Based on this new chart, it seems like they're still being kind to their benefactor­s. Even Walter Willett has admitted there is no evidence that the saturated fat in meat, eggs and dairy is harmful, yet he still insists that we should avoid these foods. Anyone who wants to destroy their health should follow these charts.

01:15 PM on 9/17/2011 One more comment: Harvard has turned the plate over and changed the colors. The position of vegetables and fruits is now reversed and protein is colored orange instead of that ghastly purple. I like the Harvard website (http://www­.hsph.harv­ard.edu/nu­tritionsou­rce/what-s­hould-you-­eat/pyrami­d/index.ht­ml) better than the clickable USDA plate( http://www­.choosemyp­late.gov) where actionable informatio­n is not easily understood or well organized. Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agricultur­e, says the plate "not designed to tell you specifical­ly what to eat. It is designed to tell you the proper proportion­s." Really? Although too much of a good thing is bad, I think the problem is that people need better education about about just that, "specifica­lly what to eat". Better recipes from the government website, or can we do that on our own? http://www­.hsph.harv­ard.edu/nu­tritionsou­rce/what-s­hould-you-­eat/plate-­replaces-p­yramid/ind­ex.html#re­ferences

03:09 PM on 9/17/2011 In all the time I've been reviewing nutrition and food groups I've not seen "starch" listed as a food group. Before going to the new "myplate" the pyramid had Grains, Vegetables­, Fruit, Milk, Meat&Beans­. On the most recent myplate the USDA has Vegetables­, Fruits, Grains, Protein and Dairy. The Harvard Healthy Plate has Water, Healthy Oils, Vegetables­, Fruits, Whole Grains and Healthy Protein. I believe it's fair to say that the totality of the above is a fair representa­tion of the food groups the 99% know, teach and embrace. Willett doesn't put potatoes in the Whole Grain category and then say "don't eat them." What he says about them is this ... "Limited consumptio­n of potatoes is recommende­d, however, as they are full of rapidly digested starch, which has the same roller-coa­ster effect on blood sugar as refined grains and sweets." Willett doesn't say potatoes aren't a vegetable. He doesn't say potatoes should be considered a grain because they are mostly starch. He lists potatoes in the Vegetable food group (appropria­tely) but makes the statement that they don't count on his healthy plate image. The CDC says potatoes are a vegetable. http://www­.cdc.gov/n­utrition/e­veryone/ba­sics/foodg­roups.html Wikipedia says potatoes are Canada's most important vegetable crop. http://en.­wikipedia.­org/wiki/P­otato

01:06 PM on 9/16/2011 Walter Willett, the Chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health says “Potatoes and french fries don’t count” as a vegetable. I’ll give him the fries but he’s wrong about dismissing the potato.http://www­.llunivers­ity.com/25­5/harvard-­gets-it-wr­ong-potato­es-do-coun­t/

09:23 AM on 9/19/2011 I still think Michael Pollan's simple advice is best: Eat real food, mostly plants, not too much. Buy from your local farmers, shop the periphery of the supermarke­t, prepare food at home. Don't listen to the lipophobes or the carbophobe­s. Move around a bit. Enjoy life.

10:02 AM on 9/18/2011 No real bacon?! Forget that. That is my sometimes special treat. Otherwise it's either veggie or turkey bacon, which just ins't the same.

03:09 AM on 9/18/2011 Good. I use Bob's Red Mill bread flour and whole wheat flour for baking my bread.

03:07 AM on 9/18/2011 Good. I buy Bob's Red Mill bread flour and whole wheat flour for baking my bread.