PHA Applauds USDA's MyPlate
06/02/2011
For Immediate Release
June 2, 2011
Contact: Sarah Coppersmith
news@ahealthieramerica.org
(202) 842-9001
Partnership for a Healthier America Applauds USDA’s New Food Icon
‘MyPlate’ Emphasizes Making Healthy Eating Easier
WASHINGTON – Lawrence A. Soler, CEO of the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) –
an organization focused on solving the nation’s childhood obesity crisis – today issued the
following statement on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) introduction of the new
food icon, MyPlate:
“We applaud the USDA’s new food icon, which takes an important step towards making
information about nutrition accessible and easy to understand. It will help empower individuals
and families make healthy decisions about what foods they eat and advance our goal of ending
the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. The graphic is simple and provides
individuals with direct, comprehensible recommendations. We look forward to working with our
private partners in embracing this new icon.”
First Lady Michelle Obama, along with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, introduced
the MyPlate at an event this morning. The graphic represents a plate of food, divided into fruits,
vegetables, grains and proteins, with a circle alongside it representing dairy. The new food icon,
along with other nutritional information, can be found online at www.ChooseMyPlate.gov.