A senior extension associate at Cornell University is giving the USDA’s new MyPlate icon high marks for conveying the proper proportions we should be seeing in our diets.

“Advice to ‘make half of your plate fruits and vegetables’ couldn’t be clearer,” Jennifer Wilkins, the community coordinator for Cornell’s Dietetic Internship Program and director of Cornell’s Farm to School Research and Outreach program said in a recent column.

In a recent post to their blog, Evidenced-Based Living, the associate dean and associate director of Cornell Cooperative Extension discuss the MyPlate icon and Wilkins assessment of it.

The Evidenced-Based Living blog post points out that there’s “clear evidence” that taking just the step of making half of your plate fruits and vegetables alone will lead to a healthier diet.

Wilkins does see one thing missing from the MyPlate icon, the blog says.

“The important reality is that food quality varies dramatically within each group,” Wilkins said. “It really does matter how much of the grains are whole grains. It matters how, and to what extent fruits and vegetables, and grains are processed. And it matters if chicken is a breast or McNuggetized.”

For more information read the Evidenced-Based Living blog post MyPlate: A healthy diet in a glance. Also read Wilkins column published in the Albany Times Union. Also visit www.choosemyplate.gov.