Taking the New MyPlate Guidelines for a Spin

Over the past week, I've eaten salad nearly every day. I started doing so after learning that I had gained nearly five pounds after a month of traveling. (Read: lots of wine and rich food) So I've integrated just a simple mixed greens salad, with grape tomatoes and sometimes shaved carrots with a low-cal dressing, into one meal a day hoping it will help fill me up and minimize what I eat of everything else.

It got me to thinking about the new MyPlate guidelines from the government. The almost ridiculously simple setup is designed to replace the Food Pyramid. 

Half the "plate" is fruit and vegetables, and a quarter of the plate is grains or other starches. The rest is protein. Could I actually eat that many vegetables and fruit in a day, given my diet history? I usually eat a banana. And I eat a vegetable with my dinner at night. That can't possibly be enough to fill the new requirements …

I went to the official website for MyPlate, www.choosemyplate.gov.  It had an option to "personalize" a food plan. I put in my weight, height, gender and age, and what it spit out wasn't really very useful. It required thinking, which I am not up to. It's a lot to keep track of.

On the vegetable front, a big focus for the new guidelines, it recommended I eat more than 5 cups of "orange vegetables" a week – more than any other color vegetable. So I clicked on recommendations, and found that I should be eating a lot of squash, pumpkin, carrots and sweet potatoes, none of which I eat very often. It meshed the red vegetables in with the category, so I guess I could eat red peppers and tomatoes, too.

Apparently I've been overdoing it on the salad, as it recommended just 1.5 cups of dark green vegetables as week. But I'm supposed to have 5 cups of "starchy vegetables." That means corn, peas, bananas, plantains, potatoes, taro and others.

And finally, 4 cups of "other vegetables" a week… including artichokes, asparagus, avocado, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, green beans, green peppers, mushrooms, etc. Pretty much a catch-all. This one is easy for me.

In the end, I interpret it to mean: Eat more of different types of vegetables and throw in some fruit here and there. I'm going to attempt to do so. For one week, I'm going to fill up my plate with veggies, following the recommended balance in the new MyPlate (if not the exact cup requirements), and see how I feel when I'm done.

It will give me an excuse to try to find new ways of cooking vegetables, as well as some new vegetables that I've never tried cooking before, as part of my goal to learn how to cook.