As a nutrition education tool, the USDA’s new MyPlate has at least one serious flaw. But viewed as a political document, it is right on target. If you haven’t seen it yet, the USDA has done away with the Food Guide Pyramid and has introduced a graphical depiction of a dinner plate divided into portions to represent how much of your diet should come from the different food groups.
Kudos to USDA for recommending that nearly half of our diet should consist of fruits and vegetables. The problem I have, however, is with the grain group. Where do we put peas and carrots? Squash and sweet potatoes? Beets, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, lentils, yucca and yams? These starchy foods are more like grains and should be in the same group. In fact, I'm of the belief that these starchy foods should form the staple of our diets. They're generally higher in fiber than most grains eaten (most grains eaten being refined), which would help us feel full and satisfied. Ounce for ounce, they are much lower in calories than grains (32 in an ounce of yams and 75 in an ounce of bread), which would help us lose weight.
They are also packed with phytonutrients. These nutritional gems are starchy like grains are and serve the same macro purpose - to provide energy, yet MyPlate puts them in the vegetable group competing for space with spinach, kale and broccoli. We should eat starchy vegetables instead of grains not along side them as is suggested by MyPlate. Moreover we should not replace green leafy or other great veggies with squash and sweet potatoes, we should eat them together. We would lose weight, be more full and satisfied, and get better nutrient value.
So why does the USDA push grains on us? As a public health policy, we need grains because they can be stored a long time and will feed us if there are catastrophic crop failures. To that end, the USDA is in the business of supporting grain producers. Farm subsidies for fruits and vegetables are virtually non-existent compared to payments for grains. According to the Environmental Working Group, farm subsidy totals for the 15 years 1995-2010 were: corn $77 trillion, wheat $32 trillion, Rice $13 trillion, Sorghum $6 trillion, Barley $2.5 trillion and Oats $267 million. Apples are the first fruit and vegetable on the list hitting $261 million. By the way, dairy farmers were paid about 6 trillion.
Don't get me wrong: Grains are very nutritious. I certainly eat them often enough. When you eat them, choose the whole grain variety and you’ll get phytonutrients and fiber. Eat them after a workout and the excess carbs will not be turned into fat. But you’re better off, in my opinion, getting your starchy food fix on peas and carrots rather than pasta and rice.
