Food for Thought

[cahwyguy]

A few food related items from today's lunchtime news reading:

• New York vs. Los Angeles. First it was Five Guys, coming to Southern California to invade the territory of In-N-Out. Now Pinks needs to worry as New York's Papaya King Hot Dog Stand is invading Los Angeles. They have even brought in insulting advertising: “We’re 100 percent natural. But

Comments

[barnabas_truman]

The plate graphic is terrible! The fact that all four sectors are right angles makes it look like they should all be the same amount. Have these people never heard of a pie chart? Also, the URL is silly.

[cahwyguy]

My guess as to why they didn't go with a pie chart:

(1) Pie? Are you kidding? We don't want to suggest desserts!

(2) Most people associate pie charts with math, and we don't want to scare them or have them guess what the percentages are.

So are the amounts the same? My guess would be that they essentially are. The key notion they are pushing is that half of your plate should be vegetables and fruit, and the distinction between those two is small. Whether the meat is 20% or 25% is probably negligible. The large question is: what proportion of the meal should be dairy: having it on the side as a supplement gives no details as to proportion, other than it shouldn't be the meal itself (damn, there goes my mac-n-cheese!).

As for the URL: it appears that "myplate.gov" works equally well, so I can't figure out why they added the "choose".

[barnabas_truman]

"Math is hard; let's go shopping!"

I stopped trusting food groups/pyramids when I realized how heavily influenced they are by food production lobbies.

[cahwyguy]

"Math is hard; let's go shopping!"

I don't know if you listen to Science Friday, but there was an excellent piece in last Friday's edition, Hour 1, on Discalcula. See http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201105272

[tsgeisel]

I welcome Five Guys to the area wholeheartedly. I haven't even tried their hamburgers, but their fries are leagues better than In-n-Out - and you get way more of them.

I can't comment on the quality of the hamburgers, though. Those are far more expensive, and I'm not ready to justify that experiement.

[mortuus]

Their burgers are delicious :-)

They're my favorite fast-food burgers. Ever. Yum. This comment is making me hungry. Maybe I should get one for lunch tomorrow....

Edit: I don't want to change the comment because it makes me giggle, but I just wanted to clarify that I should get a burger for lunch tomorrow, not a comment.

[cahwyguy]

I understand that comments are less fattening, but I'm not sure where they fit on the food plate.

[dianec42]

So, what about people who can't eat grains or dairy? And how is this plate substantially different from the "4 food groups" I learned about in the 70s, other than fruit getting a promotion?

[cahwyguy]

I think "grains" is generic-speak for whole-carbohydrates. It is certainly more than wheat, I would think: it would include brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa, oats, and in general starchy-things.

I would also think dairy refers to dairy equivalents.

You're right that it is similar to the four food groups -- I think the intent is to show proportion. Thus, the goal is to dispell the idea we have in the Western world that an appropriate dinner is a steak that fills half the plate, with french fries and a coke. Veggies and fruit should be half of the meal, with the meat constituting no more than 1/4, and the starches no more than 1/4. It is that proportion that's important, and is what the plate is emphasizing (much better than was ever emphasized in the pyramid -- would you have been able to guesstimate what percentage of your meal should be veggies from the old pryamid, other than "more" or "less".

[talonvaki]

I think the protein sector is WAY too small. Also, Dairy is usually made of Protein (milk, cheese, etc.), so how do they reconcile that? And are eggs considered "Protein" or "Dairy"?

I don't see why the "food chart" can't match the information on food packages: Fats, Carbohydrates (broken into Sugars, Fibre, etc.), and Protein. Then everything would at least match.