The United States Department of Agriculture is well known for their regulation of food and agriculture, however, what many people do not know is that they also run many programs promoting nutrition and health. One of these programs is known as the “MyPlate” campaign. MyPlate provides essential information to individuals, professionals, educators, and the food industry to help consumers create healthier diets with resources and tools for nutrition information and education. In general, the MyPlate program encourages these simple tips:
-Focus on fruits
-Vary your veggies
-Make at least ½ of your grains whole grains
-Go lean with protein
-Get your calcium rich foods
Within the MyPlate program, there are a variety of useful resources for a wide range of target audiences. The one that I found to be interesting was the MyPlate page on pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding. This nutritional education guide contains various links to encourage healthy eating and habits for women are both pregnant or breastfeeding. Some of these links are: nutritional needs, healthy weight gain (pregnant women), and tips. The website also contains food plan suggestions, as well as guidance in the areas of food safety, dietary supplements, and medical conditions. What I found to be the most surprising about the material was that the website did not go into much detail regarding vitamins and minerals for pregnant women. The site basically just says “talk to a doctor and start taking daily prenatal vitamins.” In my opinion, I feel that they could at least go more in depth and explain more about necessary vitamin intake, as well as what exactly a prenatal vitamin is, for those who are not as educated in the area.
After looking over the MyPlate nutrition education program various times, something that I found enjoyable and attention grabbing was the colorfulness of the website and the presentation of the information. They did a wonderful job of creating an attention capturing layout and color scheme, which is important when educating individuals in order to keep their interest and focus.
MyPlate makes it simple for individuals to use their information for both their own use and/or to further educate others, with options available on the website for professional guidance or educator guidance. Their material is very basic and easy to understand, which also makes it easy for others to use and expand on when educating others. If I were an educator using this material I would use their various models such as the MyPlate diagram showing what an average meal should look like on a plate, as well as the MyPyramid diagram. Posters with diagrams are a helpful tool to use when educating others because it breaks the information down, making it more simple and easy to take in.
Overall, I think that the MyPlate education program for pregnant women and breastfeeding women is well structured and does an effective job with informing women on ways to improve their health and diet. Sometimes people just need encouragement and help in order to engage their desire to create a healthy lifestyle and make better choices, which is exactly what the MyPlate program and the resources that it provides does.