MyPlate Daily Checklist

[Lyndzie]

I was in a discussion today about confusion over nutritional information, and that most people don't follow the UDSA guidelines, regardless of how healthy they are for you, which prompted us to actually look up what the USDA recommends. Here is the link: https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlate-Daily-Checklist

When I input my gender, age, weight, and activity level, the calorie calculation is very close to what I consume when I track my eating on Crononmeter. Then, I looked up the breakdown of quantities from each food group, and with the exception of dairy, it was pretty spot on to what I eat in a day. Here's that link: https://choosemyplate-prod.azureedge.ne ... 14plus.pdf

If people actually followed the guidelines, they would be really close to what is advocated here (if using beans for the protein and dairy alternatives, of course). So, from your perspective, what is wrong with the USDA guidelines?

[JeffN]

I was in a discussion today about confusion over nutritional information, and that most people don't follow the UDSA guidelines, regardless of how healthy they are for you, which prompted us to actually look up what the USDA recommends. Here is the link: https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlate-Daily-Checklist

When I input my gender, age, weight, and activity level, the calorie calculation is very close to what I consume when I track my eating on Crononmeter. Then, I looked up the breakdown of quantities from each food group, and with the exception of dairy, it was pretty spot on to what I eat in a day. Here's that link: https://choosemyplate-prod.azureedge.ne ... 14plus.pdf

If people actually followed the guidelines, they would be really close to what is advocated here (if using beans for the protein and dairy alternatives, of course). So, from your perspective, what is wrong with the USDA guidelines?

Not much other than no one follows them.

I have said this since the Pyramid came out. The problem is not the recommended guidelines, the problem is the way they have been interpreted, presented and represented by industries, especially through marketing and advertising, some of it as "educational" information.

This is discussed in this thread...

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=46988

Same for the recommendations of The WHO, the FAO, the AHA, etc. No, not perfect, but actually pretty good, if interpreted correctly.

While I was at Pritikin, we wrote this article which basically said that and that the only program(s) that really meet these guidelines are the WFPB diets. We even created a comparison chart showing how most all other diets fell short of these recommendations, which you can see at the link

https://www.pritikin.com/eperspective/0 ... _print.htm

And, here is a discussion on how I would even use them at Pritikin to show that unless one followed (at least) these guidelines, you couldn't get enough fiber. (The presentation goes on the show the other aspects too, that are not in the thread, that it is the best way to get in all your nutrients and limit all the unhealthy things.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=47765

So, yes, if you use beans for your protein and "greens" instead of dairy (as a calcium source), or if you don't mind liquid calories and use plain non-dairy milk in the dairy group, and either eliminate the oil or use nuts as the added fat, then you are very close to what we recommend.

And yes, I think that if American was to just follow those guidelines, we would get rid of about 50-75% of preventative chronic disease.

The fact is that no one ever listens or follows these. That is why I say all these new reports and papers that seem to move more in this direction don't matter, no one listens to them anyway.

In Health
Jeff

[Lyndzie]

So, by the end of the conversation yesterday someone suggested that the two of us go on a 30-day challenge to meet the USDA guidelines everyday. I said I would be totally game, with the exception of dairy. For me to fulfill the spirit of this challenge, in your opinion, would 1 cup of almond milk and 2 cups cooked greens be an acceptable replacement for the 3 cups of dairy recommended?

[JeffN]

So, by the end of the conversation yesterday someone suggested that the two of us go on a 30-day challenge to meet the USDA guidelines everyday. I said I would be totally game, with the exception of dairy. For me to fulfill the spirit of this challenge, in your opinion, would 1 cup of almond milk and 2 cups cooked greens be an acceptable replacement for the 3 cups of dairy recommended?

The main reason the Dairy group exists is to make sure you meet the recommended calcium intake as the average cup of dairy milk has about 300 mg of calcium and the recommended intake is around 1000 mg/day.

That raises a few questions.

1) it is accurate?

No. But that raises another discussion, which is not worth having, but is well covered in this forum including how much do we really need, absorption rates, impact of high protein and salt intakes, etc. .

2) How can i get in that amount of calcium.

Most all non-dairy milks have been fortified to have around 300 mg of calcium too, so a 1 to 1 switch covers their recommendations.

Many of the dark green leafy veggies can supply a significant amount of calcium. You can plug in a 1 cup cooked sample of several to see. I for example, 2 cups of cooked collards is about 550 mg of calcium.

So, you can come up with any combination of these to meet your goal.

This is per calorie, and not per cup, but you can see some examples here

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=5604&p=62757#p62757

However, the USDA Myplate guidelines is only based on servings, not calcium.

3) Or, you can looks at Harvard's Plate, which leaves the dairy out and explains why

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying- ... ting-plate

https://www.health.harvard.edu/plate/qu ... ting-plate

In Health
Jeff

[JeffN]

Not much other than no one follows them.

I show these slides at the 10-Day to make the point of how unhealthy the American diet is, including those who think they eat healthy. These charts compare to the American diet to the USDA MyPlate recommendations and when you see how far off we are from those, we realize how far off we really are from a truly healthy diet

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 9426c0a555

In Health
Jeff

[Lyndzie]

Thank you again!