MyPlate- Where Does Beer Fit In?

This past June, the USDA abandoned the Food Guide Pyramid as their premier teaching tool to help consumers plan and portion out their daily diet. They replaced it with the simple and logical MyPlate, which is a place-setting graphic that shows a plate divided into unequal parts consisting of vegetables, grains, fruits and protein-rich foods. The beverage-type image off to the side is the dairy group (but remains optional in your daily diet). 

The notable change between the MyPlate and the Pyramid is that the MyPlate can be more easily used on a meal-by-meal basis instead of the Pyramid assisting you to plan your diet over the course of the day.  Just by looking at the Plate, you can see the groups that you should be including in your diet and can easily see which foods portion size should be large or small compared to each other. As individual calorie needs vary, the size of the plate would be a way to limit or increase your overall intake and therefore calories. (Your Beer Dietitian says to use a small plate whenever dining!) Also, if you were working on losing weight, the vegetable portion size would likely be larger than the percentage shown. 

You probably have noticed that there isn’t a pint glass of frothy, cold beer next to the plate in the MyPlate place setting. This is no accident. The USDA continues to recommend that you should only drink alcohol in moderation, if at all. This generally means one drink per day for women and 2 drinks for men and portion size does matter! One drink is equivalent to: Twelve ounces of regular beer or 5 ounces of wine or 1-½ ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits. In addition to the potentially harmful effects of alcohol, it can easily and quickly add to your calorie intake. So omitting and/or limiting the amount of alcohol you drink can help with preventing future weight gain or help you lose weight. 

Despite having a new tool to help us plan our daily diets, the message remains clear: moderation is key. Limiting foods and beverages that provide a lot of calories but not a lot of nutrients is important and beer and other alcohol drinks fall into this category. By making fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean protein-rich foods the focus of every meal, you will enjoy a healthier, happier life. As a result, you will have many more years to enjoy a beer or two (drinking responsibly, of course)!

In the meantime, your Beer Dietitian will be working on a high-fiber, nutrient-rich, calorie-free beer that makes you more handsome/beautiful and keeps you fit without doing any exercise. Until then, please fill your plate with lots of fruits and veggies and break a sweat now and then! 

To your health!

-The Beer Dietitian

To hear my latest beer musings and what I am drinking, follow me on Twitter!