Jun 6
2011
Last week, the USDA unveiled a re-design of America's most familiar dietary decision-making guide. The old Food Pyramid has been retired, and in its place, Americans now have a new icon in a shape more relevant to eating—a plate. The new graphic communicates a simple message that aligns with Michael Pollan's motto: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Half of the plate is composed of fruits and vegetables, while the other half contains grains and protein, and a small satellite disk represents dairy. You can view the new graphic at choosemyplate.gov.
What role does design play in influencing our eating behaviors?
Allison gave the final word
The use of this brightly colored plate is a step in the right direction but why didn’t they get one of the brilliant infographics designers working out there to do this? 4 colorful triangles doesn’t translate to tasty food. (And what protein is purple exactly?) While the plate is a vast improvement over the inexplicable pyramid, I shudder to think of how many “meals” are consumed these days from paper wrappers, styrofoam containers, and squeezable tubes! …
Monday, June 6 at 6:33pm
The link to the sample plate photo: http://i.usatoday.net/yourlife/_photos/2011/06/02/USDA-food-plate-4C5AB81-x-large.jpg
Monday, June 6 at 3:46pm
Allison gave the Final Word
The use of this brightly colored plate is a step in the right direction but why didn’t they get one of the brilliant infographics designers working out there to do this? 4 colorful triangles doesn’t translate to tasty food. (And what protein is purple exactly?) While the plate is a vast improvement over the inexplicable pyramid, I shudder to think of how many “meals” are consumed these days from paper wrappers, styrofoam containers, and squeezable tubes! I’m not really that confident that this will do much to change eating habits because the challenges of getting people to embrace healthy eating goes way beyond the plate. Where to begin? I’ll quickly skip over giant obstacles like the USDA’s competing agendas of promoting healthy eating while subsidizing non-food crops or the fact that our nation has fallen for the myth that cooking is burdensome, time consuming and expensive–and so opts for unhealthy fast food instead. Because the question is: can design help? Yes, to a point and only in concert with other efforts. What we don’t need is more and more cutely branded yet not necessarily healthy kid snacks (I’m talking about you, Elmo Pizza). The focus shouldn’t be on creating cuter (and more misleading) food labels but rather on healthier, tastier foods.
I think a great place to start is early on, with school kids (for whom by the way, this plate will do nothing). Develop curriculum that combines identification of fruits and vegetables with drawing, math, science, gardening, and cooking. Teach a kid to grow a tomato, then draw it–the chances are way better that he’ll be inclined then to eat it.
This is getting way too long but…the USDA did so with the plate concept. Plates are at least an inch wider in diameter than they were in the past? Why? That encourages larger portions sizes and makes people continue to eat even if they’re full. Designers, get to work on portion control. Companies like Method (methodhome.com) are working to decrease package size for laundry detergent, for example. Other companies should follow suit and help to dispel this notion that BIG size=BIG value. Case in point? 7-11′s Big Gulp holds 128 ounces. No one ever needs to drink 128 ounces of anything. Design an irresistible vessel for a reasonably-sized beverage. Make it a re-usable, collectible container, a keepsake, in fact. The value can be in the design and not the quantity (and calories).
Monday, June 6 at 6:33pm
I work as a designer for a children’s educational publisher, North Star Teacher Resources. Prior to this, I was classically trained as a chef at one of the top culinary schools in America. And have worked extensively in the hospitality industry prior to a career switch about 15 years ago.
Combing what I’ve learned in these two careers, I can say with some authority, design greatly influences our eating patterns. But we all know this to be true at some level. The second we reach for that glistening red strawberry pie we came under the influence of the color red and the execution of design from the pastry chef. We don’t need this sweetened delight, yet we crave it. As they drilled into us in culinary school, “We eat with our eyes first”.
Interestingly even Alfred Hitchcock’s knew appetite was influenced by design and color. In the 1960’s he hosted his famous “Blue Food Party”. Were he had his chef prepare foods dyed with blue food coloring–right down to blue mayonnaise. Blue is not a natural food color. As the story goes, a lot of food went uneaten.
So using fresh eye appealing food product and pleasing colors as they relate to food graphics, I feel is essential in the education for the next generation. The provided link on this website to the new USDA plate icon with the food placed upon the plate is just plain gross. I have to say the plate looks nutritionally sound, but do you crave it or do you want pie?
I agree processed foods are not the best choice. But know for a lot of Americans, processed foods have become standard fare due to price of fresh foods, time restraints, and the influence of design and marketing. And this is all influenced by the “Politics of Food”.
Last year our North Star team was assigned to come up with a product we could sell in the educational market place that kids would find easy to understand.
We wanted to express to kids that fresh whole foods are the healthy tasty option to a dinner from a bag. North Star Teachers Resources teamed with dieticians, teachers, chefs, and designers to produce a teaching aide entitled, “Build A Healthy Plate”.
Our collected mouths dropped when we saw what the USDA came out with last week. Take a look a close look at how closely related these two items are: http://www.nstresources.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=462
But we took it one step further then the USDA by including what we call “Combination Foods”. These are typical kid friendly meals such as “Spaghetti with Meat Sauce”. It has foods from more than just one group, so the photo of the food covers more than one triangle.
North Star Teacher Resources was fortunate enough to have presented “Build A Healthy Plate” this year in San Antonio at NSSEA’s Ed Expo and our product was selected as a “Hot Product” for 2011. Prior to the USDA release of their new icon, the educational market place embraced the concept of the dinner plate.
Wednesday, June 8 at 3:43pm
I personally find this food plate more confusing than the original food pyramid. The portions here seem like they are all the same size and fats and sugar aren’t even addressed. Is the size of the circle supposed to correspond to the size of the triangles? Or does it simply mean: “add some dairy”? I understand that the addition of a plate is logical, but the rest of the graphic from size to color choice seem utterly confusing to me.
Beyond the role of design in this food pyramid/plate, I think the most widespread role design plays in influencing our eating behaviors has to be in packaging. And of course, the foods that are best for us are the ones which are never packaged, the fruits and vegetables—while the foods that are most harmful to us are the ones mascoted by Spongebob and Dora.
As Alexandra Lange noted on Design Observer (http://observersroom.designobserver.com/alexandralange/entry.html?entry=24298), packaging design has helped create a culture where “good” food, food that is fresh and minimally processed is seen as elitist whereas “bad” food, food that is heavily processed and packaged is seen as the food of the people. We design healthy food to look upscale and expensive, when perhaps we should be doing the opposite. Maybe creating packaging that appears generic and cheap would actually appeal to the mainstream. Or as mentioned in the Lange article, perhaps we should try packaging healthy food as junk food. Those repackaged bags of carrots do seem like they would be appealing to children.
Either way, I think it’s important to note that with packaging comes issues of class and if you’re hoping to get the greater public to eat healthier, that should be kept in mind. For the most part though, I think people already know what kinds of foods are better for them. We know to choose fruits and vegetables over hamburgers. It’s our jobs as designers (and socially conscious individuals) to figure out how to influence people to eat the healthiest option available to them—and I think packaging plays a far larger role in this than any food plate or pyramid.
Thursday, June 9 at 12:19am
I think what is most disappointing about the new food plate is that it ignores whole systems thinking about food and nutrition. Perhaps the government departments that address health, agriculture, commerce and education are too far removed from one another to collaborate effectively. Unfortunately, the result is a truly flat and inadequate guide to eating. In an attempt to design something simple and easy to reference, they stopped short of providing sufficient information to steer people toward truly healthy choices. Jack is right, the sample plate may pass the most basic nutrition test, but if we follow the USDA’s visual guidance, we would still never eat a fresh fruit or vegetable; a whole, unprocessed grain; or a fresh piece of meat. And our healthcare system would still be burdened with the consequences of that kind of diet. As Allison said, the USDA could have leveraged the talent of numerous designers to make the visual communication more complete, effective and informative.
Thursday, June 9 at 2:23pm
Sarah, what whole systems thinking are you refearing too?
If we can get the basic message of nutrition out there, we are making progress.
The next mantras could be: “Eat Locally, Eat Fresh and Seasonally”. Get people to understand how far their food had to travel to get to them and what processing has taken place.
And “Shop the outside walls in your grocery stores”. Every time you go down the aisles the more processed the food is.
I do understand modern food processing has feed a hungry nation and am grateful. Hungry is truly awful.
Thursday, June 9 at 3:43pm
I think Sarah nails it when she writes, “In an attempt to design something simple and easy to reference, they stopped short of providing sufficient information to steer people toward truly healthy choices.” If one interprets the new MyPlate graphic as a pie chart–in which the quarter devoted to fruits and the quarter devoted to vegetables collectively indicate that fruits and vegetables should make up 50 percent of a person’s diet–then the message is a good one (a serious improvement relative to the carb-heavy early-nineties Food Pyramid). But the trouble is that this sort of interpretation is far from a given, since the plate graphic does not provide any cues about how the visuals translate into numbers (suggested servings?) or desirable behavior. As the design critic Steven Heller wrote in a piece we commissioned for the Life section of The Atlantic’s website (http://theatln.tc/mzkRtd), “Unlike the pyramid, the plate skirts around the data. Instead of a chart it is a logo or mnemonic for healthy eating–no more revealing than the recycling symbol, which effectively says ‘recycle!’ but does not indicate how to do so.”
I also find the “MyPlate” name problematic in the same way that “MyPyramid,” the latest iteration of the Food Pyramid–and a consensus flop–was problematic. The “my” gestures toward personalization (and did so especially with MyPyramid, where the idea seemed to be that people would go online and use a variety of surveys to obtain personalized nutrition recommendations). But it also sounds wishy-washy. It’s an aptly vague name for a graphic that is colorful and stimulating but unable to communicate specific and universal dietary recommendations. Specificity and universality were, in contrast, strengths of the original Food Pyramid (although the actual nutritional recommendations were questionable).
Stepping back for a moment and addressing the original prompt, though–What role does design play in influencing our eating behaviors?–I’d like to suggest that nutritional graphics like MyPlate and the Food Pyramid are actually among the least significant ways in which design can influence how we eat. As nutritionists such as Marion Nestle and public health advocates such as Kelly Brownell have argued, providing the public with information about what’s healthy and what’s unhealthy is far less important than creating a “food environment” filled with so-called “optimal defaults”–an environment that is engineered to lead people, who naturally gravitate toward fats and sugars, to make healthy choices. One way to do this is through policy–politically controversial soda taxes, an (equally controversial) end to corn subsidies, and so on. But another way is through design–by actually building physical environments that promote health.
Sarah discussed this in her very smart piece for us about redesigning supermarkets (http://theatln.tc/khO8ZS). And then there’s the pioneering work of Brian Wansink, whose food and behavior lab at Cornell has looked at how redesigning school lunchrooms can produce almost unfathomable increases in healthy food purchases. (Example: moving the salad bar so students must pass it on their way to the checkout line dramatically increases salad intake.) Redesigning graphics is important, and Sara Hamling’s suggestion, above, that food packages be improved also seems promising. But when we actually redesign the built environments that affect how people eat on a day to day basis, that, I think, is where design can really make a difference.
Thursday, June 9 at 11:12pm
MyPlate sets the stage for simplified classroom instruction because it emphasizes fruits and vegetables graphically, eliminates added fats and sugars, and demonstrates reasonable portion size for protein and grains. If kids see a visual representation of their dinner plate, instead of a conceptual pyramid that is difficult for them to translate into a meal, they have taken an important step toward learning to recognize healthy food and developing healthy eating habits. The food, however, must appeal to kids (which the current government photography does not achieve). Hopefully, products like Build A Healthy Plate (buildahealthyplate.com) that depict healthy food through appetizing photography, will make MyPlate an effective tool for teaching nutritionally balanced eating, which is critical in our effort to reduce childhood obesity.
Friday, June 10 at 11:21am
Keywords
Selected list of words appearing in this and other conversations.
Sarah Rich
Writer, Editor, Co-Founder of Foodprint Project and Longshot Magazine
1
One of the interesting aspects of the USDA’s visual approach with MyPlate is their attempt to bring the new diagram to life through sample plates. On the day of the announcement, the USDA composed several examples for the press to see and photograph. But, to speak in design terms, the choice of materials seems more likely to undercut the efficacy of the example than to propel them toward the goal of getting Americans to eat healthier.
On the sample plate, the vegetable section holds a pile of canned green beans and the fruit section contains canned mandarin orange slices. The grain section features a slice of sandwich bread, and in the protein area is a hunk of pinkish meat that could be fish, fowl or pork. I’m perplexed by their choice to use 100% processed food on the sample plates, while other USDA nutrition programs preach the importance of eating unprocessed food.
If this is what we are to believe a plate of “healthy” food looks like, it’s no wonder so many Americans opt for a Big Mac, which, when photographed, gets more makeup and lighting than the average supermodel. While most food companies try to sell their products by making them aspirational, the government seems to have done the opposite in their visual approach. It makes me wonder what responsibility lies with the designers and PR managers in leveraging design to moderate behavior.
Monday, June 6 at 3:44pm