The National Chicken Council announced this week that it has teamed up with the nearly 6,000 USDA partners to make March 8 “What’s on MyPlate?” Day, to heighten public awareness of the importance of choosing foods for a healthy meal. NCC is committed to promoting a diet that reflects the latest recommendations in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and highlights the message behind the new MyPlate food icon.
The MyPlate icon, unveiled last summer, is the new USDA food graphic replacing MyPyramid, and designed to be a visual cue to remind consumers to make healthful food choices. It supports the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, features the five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy.
The goal of “What’s on MyPlate?” Day is to create nationwide attention by using the outreach strength of social networks such as blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, to promote MyPlate and its related messages and resources like the new SuperTracker and the ChooseMyPlate.gov website. These resources empower consumers with the how-tos to build healthier plates, and to choose lean protein options like chicken.
As part of this effort, NCC and the USDA Nutrition Communicators Network urged consumers to put MyPlate into action by taking a photo of their healthful plates to share on Twitter with the hash-tag #MyPlate.
