The UK’s ‘Eatwell’ plate should be called ‘EatCrap’ plate. It shows an almost overwhelming misunderstanding of what constitutes a healthy diet. Here’s one of my takes on it:
1. It says there are five food groups. No. Just no.
Here are their five:
- Fruit & vegetables
- Starchy foods (bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, etc)
- Milk and dairy foods
- Meat, fish, eggs, beans, etc; what they call non-dairy sources of protein
- Foods and drinks high in fat and/or sugar
What is wrong with this:
- Fruit is one group, and vegetables are another: they do not belong together as they have different properties
- Starchy foods in the quantities suggested here are guaranteed to make you feel below par and make you put on weight (in the form of fat, not muscle)
- Milk is a dairy food; it just happens to be in liquid form
- Non-dairy sources of protein: apart from pure oil/fat and pure sugar, all foods contain protein to one extent or another… and varying proportions of fats and carbohydrates
- Foods and drinks high in fat and/or sugar: this one group is, in fact, several:
- Foods high in natural sugar
- Foods high in added sugar
- Foods high in good fats
- Foods high in bad fats
- Foods high in fat and sugar: these don’t happen naturally so will be, in all probablity, junk food – what is the government/NHS doing peddling this nonsence? Are they scared people will rebel if advised to avoid junk foods altogether? Or is it the Big Food they are scared of/paid off by?
These are food groups:
- Dairy
- Eggs
- Fish and seafood (separated from meat because some people eat fish but not other animals)
- Fruit – very sweet
- Fruit – less sweet/tart
- Grains
- Legumes (pulses, beans, etc)
- Meat (all types and including organ meat)
- Nuts and seeds
- Vegetables – starchy
- Vegetables – leafy
Proteins, fats and carbohydrates are macronutrients – they are not food groups! Some people are intolerant to some foods so they need to avoid them. If you’re not sure if you have any food intolerances, we can find out for you.