Healthy eating visual representations can be a very effective method to eat healthily and monitor what you eat. The two main forms of healthy eating visuals are the eat well plate and the US food pyramid. The purpose of both these visuals are to help people understand the variety of food we as humans need to consume on a daily basis and to get the balance right.
The eat well plate is dissected into 5 portions in each portion are a variety of foods, but not all sides are equal so it shows you visually the amount you should be consuming on a daily basis. The eat well plate is recommended by the NHS and they use it to promote health to a range of people. For adults and children over five, a diet based on the eat well plate is important, to make sure that we obtain the wide range of nutrients we need (NHS, 2011). Food portions in Americas restaurants have doubled or tripled over the last 20 years, a key factor that is contributing to a potentially devastating increase in obesity among young children and adults (National heart, lung and blood institute, 2013). This is one reason why we need visual representation of how much and of what we need to eat because the portion sizes are increasing drastically. “ Super sized portions at restaurants have distorted what Americans consider a normal portion size, and that affects how much we eat at home as well” said Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, (National heart, lung and blood institute, 2013).
The food guide pyramid was created to educate people of the nutrition they needed and the amounts they needed. The food pyramid comes with very detailed information about what an individual needs to eat. There are pictures of all the types of food talked about in this pyramid and exactly how much calories per specified amount of food which would really help an individual monitor their daily calorie intake. All the foods that are shown in the pyramid are colour coded and a portion size is specified, so if an individual was stuck on what is a portion it is specified, which is really beneficial. The pyramid is excellent to educate people on what they need to eat in order to stay at optimum health and what portion sizes to eat. The visuals on the pyramid as individuals can understand to them and relate to them and compare their diet to them in order to make sure they are on track.
Both visual representations are very useful, but the eat well plate is a lot similar than the food pyramid, the eat well plate is just the plate where the different foods are split up in the recommended sizes whereas the pyramid is a lot more informative, which some people may find a little confusing and hard to follow. Even secretary Vilsack said that he had never been able to make sense of the pyramid
(Health land, 2011). Even though the pyramid is a little hard to understand but visual representation is still very important as Michelle Obama unveiled the government’s new symbol for healthy eating, a colourful plate divided into basic food groups (Health land, 2011).
References
- Health land. (2011). The USA ditches the food pyramid for a plate. [Online] [Accessed on 08 December 2013] http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/02/the-usda-ditches-the-food-pyramid-and-offers-a-plate/
- Health land. (2011). The USA ditches the food pyramid for a plate. [Online] [Accessed on 08 December 2013] http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/02/the-usda-ditches-the-food-pyramid-and-offers-a-plate/
- National heart, lung and blood institute. (2013). We can – Community news feature. [Online] [Accessed on 08 december 2013] http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/news-events/matte1.htm
- National heart, lung and blood institute. (2013). We can – Community news feature. [Online] [Accessed on 08 december 2013] http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/news-events/matte1.htm
- NHS. (2011). Healthy eating. [Online] [Accessed on 08 December 2013] http://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/food-and-health-tips/healthy-eating-eatwell-plate/
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