Healthy eating pyramid out, plate in

The US government has ditched its two-decade old pyramid model for healthy eating and introduced a new plate symbol half filled with fruits and vegetables to urge better eating habits.

The colourful design, called MyPlate, was unveiled by first lady Michelle Obama.

The plate icon is sectioned into four parts, with fruits and vegetables making up one half and grains and proteins filling the other half. A dairy drink is included alongside.

The graphic replaces the food pyramid, released in 1992, which showed that fats and oils were located at the upper tip and should be used sparingly, while whole grains made up the base of the diet with six to 11 servings daily.

But critics maintained the pyramid design was too hard for the general public to understand.

A total of 26.7 per cent of the US population is obese, and no single state has been able to meet the 15 per cent obesity limit set by the US government, according to 2009 data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

A White House taskforce found last year that close to one-third of children in America are overweight or obese, and obesity rates among youths have tripled since 1980.

Mrs Obama said the MyPlate icon would be useful in the fight against childhood obesity, but would not be limited to that age group.

''It's an image that can be reinforced and practised at breakfast, lunch, and at dinner, no matter how old we are,'' Mrs Obama said.