MyPlate
How many food groups are shown on MyPlate?
Five: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, and dairy.
This nutrient makes up about 60% of your body weight.
Water
This three-word slogan headlines the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines.
"Eat Real Food"
This is the amount of food YOU choose to put on your plate and eat.
Portion
Sleep, exercise, and nutrition fall under this dimension of wellness.
Physical wellness
This sense is most strongly linked to food memories.
Smell — it works with taste to create flavor and memory.
Together, these two food groups should fill about half of your plate.
Fruits and vegetables (vegetables take slightly more space).
This nutrient is the body's main and preferred source of energy.
Carbohydrates
The new guidelines brought back a food pyramid, but with this big change to its shape.
It is inverted (upside-down), with the widest part at the top.
This is the standard, measured amount listed on the Nutrition Facts label.
Serving size
Building healthy friendships and relationships is part of this dimension.
Social wellness
A food that brings feelings of comfort or nostalgia, often from childhood, is called this.
Comfort food
In what year did MyPlate replace MyPyramid?
2011
This nutrient builds and repairs muscles, tissues, and cells.
Protein
The guidelines describe real food with these three qualities.
Whole, nutrient-dense, and naturally occurring.
A 3-ounce serving of meat is about the size of this everyday object.
A deck of cards (or the palm of your hand).
Managing stress and expressing your feelings in healthy ways is this dimension.
Emotional wellness
Besides hunger, name two things that influence what we choose to eat.
Any two: family, culture, traditions, emotions, memories, holidays, friends, advertising, cost.
MyPlate recommends that at least half of the grains you eat be this type.
Whole grains (brown rice, oatmeal, whole-wheat bread).
Calcium, iron, and potassium belong to this nutrient group.
Minerals
The guidelines say to limit these foods, which often contain artificial dyes, flavors, and preservatives.
Highly processed (ultra-processed) foods
Your closed fist is about this much food — a handy guide for cereal, pasta, or fruit.
1 cup
Learning new skills, being creative, and thinking critically belong to this dimension.
Intellectual wellness
Explain how family traditions and culture shape the foods we like.
Foods we eat repeatedly at home and at celebrations become familiar and meaningful, so we keep choosing them.
Name the food group shown as the small circle next to the plate, and give two foods in it.
Dairy: milk, yogurt, cheese, or fortified soy milk.
Name all six nutrients.
Carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water.
The new protein recommendation is this range per kilogram of body weight each day.
1.2 to 1.6 grams per kg (about double the old 0.8 g/kg).
A bag of chips has 2.5 servings and 150 calories per serving. How many calories if you eat the whole bag?
375 calories (2.5 × 150)
Explain why wellness is shown as a wheel.
All dimensions are connected. If one is neglected, the wheel is out of balance and the others are affected.
Give one way a food memory could lead to an unhealthy choice and one way it could lead to a healthy one.
Unhealthy: emotional eating or craving a food because of feelings.
Healthy: positive memories of family meals or fresh foods make us want to recreate them.