Both Harvard Healthy Eating Plate and USDA MyPlate are designed to provide nutritional recommendations for the general population, although they differ in some ways. For example, in contrast to the Healthy Eating Plate, MyPlate has only recently added a suggestion to consume whole grains for better health, does not make distinctions between potatoes and other vegetables, does not discuss healthy oils as a source of healthy fats, fails to address the impact of sugary drinks and juice as well as the benefits of staying active. Besides, the Healthy Eating Plate plan encourages the population to drink more water and avoid sugar in tea and coffee, as well as limiting dairy consumption, while MyPlate recommends having dairy at every meal (Harvard T.H. Chain). Thus, from these differences, it can be concluded that Healthy Eating Plate is more comprehensive in its coverage of different aspects of healthy nutrition, and thus is easy to understand and individualize according to specific dietary requirements and preferences.
The nutritional frameworks generally align in terms of the need to consume healthy proteins, grains, as well as fruits and vegetables, which means that both can be used as guidelines for establishing a healthy diet. However, when it comes to specific details, such as the benefits of limiting potato intake due to them containing rapidly digested starch, the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate is more effective in its overall approach to a healthy diet. While neither of the plans targets individuals with particular dietary restrictions, it can be concluded that MyPlate should be improved and updated in order to reach the same degree of comprehensiveness and ease of use as the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate.
Work Cited
Harvard T.H. Chain. “Healthy Eating Plate vs. USDA’s MyPlate.” 2020, Hsph Harvard, Web.