The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently retired the long-standing “food pyramid”dietary guideline in favor of the new “Choose My Plate” program. University of Texas Health Science Center Registered Dietician Erin Langewisch joins us to discuss the new Choose My Plate program on this post to HealthConnection.TV.

What is the new Choose My Plate program about? (first question)

Why was the Choose My Plate program developed? (skip to 0:49)

What are the most significant differences between the old food pyramid concept and the Choose My Plate program? (skip to 1:26)

The Choose My Plate program is built on three concepts; balancing calories, foods to increase and foods to decrease. What do these three concepts mean? (skip to 2:30)

Now that the Choose My Plate concept has been out for a few weeks, it is drawing criticism. Among those criticisms are the belief that Choose My Plate is over-simplified, that it excludes healthy fats, that it visually implies drinking only one glass of milk and that it doesn’t differentiate between healthy proteins and those that should be avoided. From the perspective of a Registered Dietician, what is your opinion of the Choose My Plate program? (skip to 4:32)

We are bombarded with ads and infomercials and websites from so-called “experts” on nutrition telling us how we should be eating. How do we know to whom we should listen? (skip to 5:54)

Are there easy-to-understand and easily obtained resources on nutrition that you can recommend? (skip to 6:40)

In your opinion, if Americans followed the guidelines set forth in the Choose My Plate program, what impact would doing so have on our use of the health care system? (skip to 7:15)

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