My Plate Challenge

In an effort to get more Americans behind the MyPlate mission the USDA launched the MyPlate Fruits and Veggies Video Challenge last month in which teams or individuals are encouraged to submit their own videos on how they manage to make half their plates fruits and vegetables without emptying their pocketbooks. With a prize package of $9,000 dollars for the best instructive and inspiring videos in three categories, there’s more than enough incentive to get creative about eating healthy. The new MyPlate must be doing something right when it comes to getting attention for healthy eating since even the Harvard School of Public Health has released their own version titled the “Healthy Eating Plate”. The Harvard version, which touts to be healthier yet than the USDA version, is not surprisingly more similar than it is different; Harvard has simply flipped the positions of fruits and veggies, and enhanced the Grains and Proteins titles. But no matter, as they say, “imitation is the best form of flattery”. If the top schools in the nation are making the effort to do their own version of the USDA MyPlate then the USDA must have done something right.