The Fat Diaries: Learning to Love the FDA's Diet Plate

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I think it is time to address an article I wrote a while ago. If you usually read this column, you know that it’s in my nature to be cynical and suspicious of everything new and different. Case in point: my article about the new food plate.

I gave this little icon of a plate divided into quarters, with one half of it being produce, a thorough lashing. I assumed it was like the original food pyramid: inaccurate, glib and an overreaching power-play by the Department of Agriculture.

Here’s the thing though: after a few weeks I found that the “choose my plate” icon was working its voodoo magic on me. I was actually starting to load up on fruits and vegetables for meals.

Vegetables weren’t something I simply got in steamer bags in the frozen section to be whipped out at dinner-time. I started to load up on fresh carrots, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, apples, oranges, plums — whatever looked good — and I served them throughout the day! It helps that my kids still eat lunch off their subdivided plates, conveniently in quarters! I found myself trying to make sure those top two pockets were full of produce. Even Pizza Night, which before had been the black-hole of nutrition, started featuring large bowls of cherry tomatoes, blueberries and melon.

The kids are overjoyed about this, since I pretty much let them eat whatever fruits and vegetable they want and let them pick out what to write on the grocery list. What’s more, they’re less demanding about having pretzels and trail mix with their lunch, since they’d rather have strawberries.

Dear God! The plate icon is working! It wasn’t something I planned to include in my life, but rather it made its way into my head without my knowledge or consent… like those brain worms in “Wrath of Khan.” So there you have it. I don’t know if it was the bright candy colors, or the fact that summer makes a person crave cold produce, or if it’s due to some government brain-washing mind-ray, but the “choose my plate” icon actually works.