The USDA has changed the way it presents its healthy eating advice from a pyramid to a plate, on the grounds that we eat off the latter, not the former.
The USDA has changed the way it presents its healthy eating advice from a pyramid to a plate, on the grounds that we eat off the latter, not the former.
The US based organisation Cleanmetrics has undertaken a very short analysis of the GHG impact of MyPlate, following the USDA’s recommendations. The report concludes: "For those adopting a typical diet based on MyPlate, the annual per- capita emissions would be about 1.1 metric tonnes of CO2e. The results also show that protein – which is heavily weighted toward animal products based on current consumption patterns – dominates the total emissions because most animal- based foods are much more emissions-intensive than plant-based foods. Even with the higher levels of fruit and vegetable consumption recommended by MyPlate, over 80% of the total emissions are a direct result of the animal products in the protein and dairy groups."
For nutritional commentary on the switch from pyramid to plate have a look at this article.
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