Print edition: 
LOS ANGELES _ Farewell food pyramid. Government officials are getting ready to dish out nutritional advice to the nation on a more appetizing platter.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is set to unveil a replacement to its much-maligned food pyramid this morning, scrapping the rainbow-striped triangle with a staircase edge in favor of a simple circle designed to evoke a dinner plate.
"That would go a long way to producing something that is actually useful for nutritionists and dietitians in the United States," said James Painter, a food psychologist and registered dietician at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill. The key, he said, is that it would give viewers a quick idea of what their meals should look like when they sit down at the table.
Half of the circle will be filled with fruits and vegetables, another section will feature rice, cereal and other grains, and the rest will contain proteins like chicken and nuts, according to people who have seen the icon. Off to the side, a smaller circle will represent dairy _ think of it as a glass of milk or a cup of yogurt.
The federal government has spent decades trying to represent a healthy diet in a simple graphic and adopted the pyramid back in 1992. The product of more than a decade of research, it placed grains at the base, fruits and vegetables in the middle and smaller amounts of dairy and protein toward the top. Sweets and other no-no items appeared at the tip with the admonition to "use sparingly."
Advances in nutrition science and pressure from food producers prompted changes that culminated in 2005's My Pyramid. Six different stripes _ representing grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, milk and meats and beans _ radiate down from the apex, eliminating what some saw as an overemphasis on grains in the previous design. A stylized stick figure was shown running up stairs on the left slope to convey the importance of exercise. But the icon showed no actual foods and required consumers to go online to get specific information on what they should be eating.
"I call it foodless and useless," said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. "It was unteachable. You couldn't explain what the colors stood for."
Even the USDA came to acknowledge its shortcomings.
"The pyramid can be confusing and complex to some, and in some cases too simplistic for others," said Robert Post, deputy director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
Worldwide efforts
The United States is hardly the only country grappling with the best way to present information on healthy eating.
In China, a five-tiered pagoda has distinct levels for starches, produce, protein, dairy and oils. In Guatemala, a traditional ceramic cooking pot called an olla is filled with pictures of pineapple, fish and bags of maize.
Grenada, which calls itself "The Isle of Spice," showcases its food circle inside a cracked-open nutmeg. The government of the Dominican Republic displays its nutrition advice inside a mortar and pestle filled with eggs, avocados and other foodstuffs that stands on a cutting board imprinted with images of a baby smiling, crawling and suckling a mysteriously detached breast.
In spite of this diversity, the food icons generally concur on what belongs in a daily diet: Lots of greens, easy on the sweets.
"You can't get two countries to agree on anything politically, or socially, and yet they all come up with the same basic idea," said Painter, who has studied 65 government nutrition icons from around the world. He said he has long favored the plate-shaped diagrams used in Mexico and the United Kingdom, which even include utensils for maximum effect.
No matter the shape, historically the diagrams had one thing in common, Nestle said: "For the first 50 or 60 years, the food guides promoted eating more of American agricultural products."
Back then, portion control was not an issue. Government officials were more concerned about malnutrition than with chronic diseases linked to being overweight and obese, the health issue taken up by first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign. (Obama will attend today's unveiling, according to USDA officials.)
Even after portion control entered the equation, the icons weren't always up on the latest nutrition science. For example, the original food pyramid recommended a diet heavy in carbohydrates and made little distinction between healthy whole grains and highly processed items like white bread. The outgoing pyramid continues to lump together all types of oils, though some found in plants and fish are now considered good for the heart while others, like trans-fatty acids, can clog up the arteries and lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Nestle said she was impressed that the new food plate devotes half its space to fruits and vegetables, given the potential objections of food producers.
"The Department of Agriculture has a long history of being in bed with the food industry, and this is moving beyond that," Nestle said. "It's not moving as far as I would like, but it's pretty courageous."
