My Plate

Overview

In this paper I will compare my diet during a typical day to the recommendations of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion in their MyPlate resource. During the specific day I chose I was not actively considering variety and portions in my consumption. The choices in each food group on the MyPlate exercise show missed targets and the analysis should also reflect this.

Fruits

For the food group of fruits I absolutely did not meet my recommendation as I consumed no fruits at all during this day. When I created the chart I did not think of the small amount of tomato slices on my lunch sandwich as a fruit or vegetable or consider it substantial enough to affect whether I had achieved the goal, but I should have included it. Fruits with lunch or as snacks during the day would easily help me meet this goal.

Vegetables

For vegetable portions I did not meet the target consumption since I had only the one cup of steamed broccoli that was part of my dinner. This was an easy computation since the 1 cup already matched the target measurement in cups. While this seems typical of the American diet, I can see a few suggestions even on the examples given in the MyPlate targets such as a cup of vegetable juice with breakfast and a salad with lunch that would help me easily meet this goal.

Grains

Grains were the closest I reached to the recommended values because each meal of the three included one source of grain. For breakfast it was the bran cereal, for lunch the bread that the sandwich was on, and for dinner a pasta provided the source. Although I had a lot of grains by volume they were in forms such as flakes and noodles that take up a lot of space for their weight, so I only counted them as about 6 ounces in total. By increasing the portion of grains I consume in each meal I could easily meet this goal.

Protein

For protein my lunch was very lunchmeat heavy which provided most of my consumption for the day. This was also close to the goal specified in the MyPlate exercise, but did not meet it. While the sandwich meat helped me get near the goal, there are several healthier sources of protein that could be substituted which contain considerably less sodium, and I would feel comfortable consuming them in larger quantities during the day.

Dairy

I did not reach my dairy target for the day after measuring the milk as a single cup and the cheese as a half cup equivalent. My dairy consumption was largely tied to the milk in my morning cereal and the cheese that was part of the macaroni and cheese for dinner. I could improve this by adding yogurt with breakfast or a breakfast that integrated more cheese such as an omelette.

Sodium

My diet on this day exceeded my sodium intake by nearly double the recommendation. This was primarily from the processed foods I consumed during the day including the lunch meats, popcorn and salted peanuts. Replacing the salted peanuts with unsalted and using a more natural protein source such as cooked chicken or beans for lunch would substantially improve this level.

All Food Groups

Taken in whole, my representative diet for this day is not varied, but may indicate moderation with the exception of sodium. The lack of fruits and low proportion of vegetables during the day may affect my ability to get all the vitamins and minerals that by body needs (USDA MyPlate Fruit Group – One of the Five Food Groups, n.d.). My consumption of grains and protein nearly met the target, and I didn’t excessively consume foods in any of the five main categories in excess of their targets.

References

USDA MyPlate Fruit Group – one of the five food groups. (n.d.). https://www.myplate.gov/eat-healthy/fruits