What are the key recommendations of MyPlate?

October 12, 2025 •

4 min read

According to the USDA, Americans take in about 400 calories per day from beverages, highlighting a major area for dietary improvement. The MyPlate initiative serves as a clear, visual guide to promote healthier eating patterns by demonstrating what a balanced meal should look like. This guide will detail what are the key recommendations of MyPlate and how to apply them for better nutrition.

Quick Summary

The MyPlate visual guide from the USDA emphasizes five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. Key recommendations include making half your plate fruits and vegetables, choosing whole grains, varying protein sources, and opting for low-fat dairy. It also promotes limiting foods high in added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium.

Key Points

Make Half Your Plate Fruits and Vegetables: Focus on filling 50% of your plate with a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables to increase vitamin, mineral, and fiber intake.
Make Half Your Grains Whole Grains: Choose whole grains like brown rice and whole-wheat bread over refined grains for more fiber and nutrients.
Vary Your Protein Routine: Incorporate a mix of lean meats, poultry, seafood, beans, and nuts for a diverse range of nutrients.
Move to Low-Fat or Fat-Free Dairy: Select low-fat milk, yogurt, or fortified soy alternatives to get essential calcium and vitamin D with less saturated fat.
Limit Added Sugars, Saturated Fat, and Sodium: Pay attention to nutrition labels and consciously reduce your intake of foods and beverages high in these components.
Prioritize Nutrient-Dense Foods: The guide promotes choosing foods that provide significant nutritional value for the calories they contain, making every bite count.

The MyPlate symbol, introduced in 2011, replaced the previous Food Pyramid and offers a straightforward, easy-to-understand visual guide for building a healthy, balanced meal. It divides a plate into sections for fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein, with a separate spot for dairy. By following these recommendations, individuals can build a foundation for healthy eating that emphasizes variety, proportion, and nutrient density.

Make Half Your Plate Fruits and Vegetables

This is perhaps the most prominent and easily recognizable recommendation of the MyPlate guide. The guide emphasizes filling half of your plate with a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, which are rich in vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber.

Focus on Whole Fruits: The guide encourages eating whole fruits (fresh, frozen, or canned) over juice to maximize fiber intake. Choosing a wide array of fruits provides a broader spectrum of nutrients.
Vary Your Veggies: MyPlate stresses the importance of eating a variety of vegetables from all subgroups, including dark green, red and orange, legumes (beans and peas), starchy, and other vegetables. This variety ensures a diverse intake of nutrients.
Incorporate into Meals and Snacks: Add vegetables to mixed dishes like casseroles, stir-fries, and soups. For snacks, choose fruits and vegetables instead of highly processed options.

Make Half Your Grains Whole Grains

Another core component is the recommendation to make at least half of your grain choices whole grains. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel—the bran, germ, and endosperm—which provides fiber, iron, and B vitamins.

Prioritize Whole Grains: Opt for whole-wheat bread, brown rice, whole-grain pasta, and oatmeal over refined-grain alternatives. Refined grains lose many beneficial nutrients during processing.
Read Food Labels: To ensure you are choosing a whole grain product, check the ingredients list for the word "whole" or "whole grain" as the first ingredient.

Vary Your Protein Routine

The protein section of the plate should be filled with a variety of foods that provide protein. MyPlate encourages a diverse routine that goes beyond just meat and includes a range of sources.

Choose Lean Proteins: Prioritize lean cuts of meat, poultry without skin, and ground meat that is at least 93% lean.
Incorporate Plant-Based Proteins: Vary your protein with beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, and soy products like tofu and tempeh. These are excellent sources of protein and fiber.
Include Seafood: The guide recommends including seafood at least twice a week, as it is a good source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

Move to Low-Fat or Fat-Free Dairy

The dairy component, which can be a cup of milk or a yogurt, is crucial for calcium, vitamin D, and potassium. The key recommendation is to choose low-fat or fat-free options to reduce saturated fat intake.

Consider Alternatives: For those who are lactose intolerant or prefer not to consume dairy, fortified soy milk and yogurt are recommended alternatives.
Understand Serving Sizes: A single serving of dairy is typically one cup of milk or yogurt, 1.5 ounces of hard cheese, or 2 ounces of processed cheese.

Limit Added Sugars, Saturated Fat, and Sodium

Beyond the plate, MyPlate advises on limiting certain dietary components that can negatively impact health.

Added Sugars: Reduce your intake of sugary drinks, desserts, and sweets. Opt for water over soda or sports drinks.
Saturated Fat: Choose lean proteins and low-fat dairy. Limit butter and other sources of saturated fat.
Sodium: Compare sodium content on nutrition labels and choose lower-sodium options. Use herbs and spices for flavoring instead of salt.

MyPlate vs. Old Food Pyramid Comparison


Feature	MyPlate (Current)	Food Pyramid (Previous)
Focus	Balance, variety, and proportion using a plate visual.	Hierarchy based on servings, emphasizing grains.
Visual Aid	A simple plate divided into sections for fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein, with a side for dairy.	A pyramid shape with a wide base for grains and a small tip for fats, oils, and sweets.
Carbohydrate Emphasis	Specifically promotes making half of your grains whole grains.	Historically emphasized grains at the base, leading to potential overconsumption.
Fruits & Vegetables	Clear visual guidance to make half of the plate fruits and vegetables.	Recommendations were less explicit and harder to visualize for meal composition.
Flexibility	Highly customizable based on individual needs, culture, and dietary preferences.	Less emphasis on personalization and more focused on broad serving numbers.
Saturated Fat/Sugars	Explicitly recommends limiting added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium.	Included fats/oils but didn't explicitly address sugar or sodium limits prominently.

Conclusion: Making Every Bite Count

MyPlate's core message is to Start Simple by focusing on making every bite count towards better health. It is a flexible, visual tool that simplifies healthy eating principles by encouraging balanced proportions and smarter choices within each food group. By varying your diet, opting for nutrient-dense foods, and limiting less healthy options, you can effectively follow what are the key recommendations of MyPlate and build lasting healthy eating habits. It provides an excellent framework for anyone looking to improve their diet, regardless of their culinary skills or dietary preferences.

For more detailed guidance and personalized meal plans, the official MyPlate website offers numerous resources to help you on your journey.

MyPlate.gov is a comprehensive resource for healthy eating tips, recipes, and tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

The five food groups on MyPlate are Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Protein, and Dairy. These categories serve as the building blocks for a balanced and nutritious diet.

While the MyPlate visual doesn't have a separate category for fats and oils, the recommendations do address them. MyPlate encourages choosing healthy vegetable oils and selecting low-fat protein and dairy options to manage fat intake.

MyPlate is a simpler, more intuitive visual guide than the Food Pyramid. It emphasizes balance and proportion by using a familiar plate setting, whereas the pyramid used a hierarchy based on serving recommendations that were sometimes harder to apply to a single meal.

Yes, MyPlate is fully customizable for dietary preferences, including vegetarian and vegan diets. Plant-based proteins like beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, and soy products can easily fill the protein section, and fortified soy alternatives are recommended for the dairy group.

MyPlate provides general proportion guidelines rather than strict portion sizes on the visual itself. However, the official website and resources offer detailed information and tools like the 'MyPlate Plan' to help individuals determine specific serving sizes based on age, sex, and activity level.

Yes, the MyPlate concept can be applied to any meal, not just one served on a single plate. For dishes like stir-fries or salads, you can use the proportions as a guide—for example, making half of the ingredients fruits and vegetables and a quarter each for grains and protein.

MyPlate recommends choosing water over sugary drinks. For dairy, it promotes low-fat or fat-free milk, and it advises limiting juice, even 100% juice, to a small serving.