Congratulations! You’ve taken in the first four parts of Switch to Rich and absorbed a load of
background, context, new thinking, science, and motivation. You now know more about food and
healthy eating than the vast majority of the population. And hopefully, you’ve tapped into a strong
desire to use this information to take your nutrition and lifestyle to a whole new level—for good.
Now that you know why this way of eating works, and you are intrigued if not determined to make
the switch, you can learn how.
What’s On Your Plate?
After you’ve learned all you need to know about nutrition—what to eat, when to eat, and so on—,at
the end of the day, it’s not what you know that matters most, but what you DO. In other words, it’s
what’s on your plate.
And the content of our plates is changing.
Remember at the start of this book when I said all roads lead to nutrient-rich healthy eating? Well,
even the government and top schools like Harvard are waking up to see the light. It’s getting harder
to deny or overlook the consequences of eating nutrient-poor any more.
The switch is even showing up in the evolution of the old four food groups “pyramids.” Currently,
the institutional authorities offer us the new “plates”
approach to best food choices.
The diagrams below depict this recent evolution, from
pyramid to plate, culminating with the pinnacle of healthy
eating—, The Nutrient Rich® Healthy Eating Plate.Here is the old style food pyramid, which was largely based
on refined grains, only two to four servings of vegetables and
fruits, and dairy products, animal products, fats, oils and
sweets comprising almost half the pyramid!This old pyramid set nutrition policy for decades—and
helped make Americans fat and sick.When it became clear that we had to change, the
government—under the leadership of Michele Obama—
made what was probably the biggest stride ever in
nutritional improvement. That change was the new
“ChooseMyPlate.”While a great improvement, this too ultimately falls short of
what it means to genuinely eat healthy. There is still too
much emphasis on dairy (suggesting it’s needed for calcium)