The PCRM's Power Plate guide to healthy eating has four categories.

Over the past decade, we’ve noticed that vegan diets have become much more mainstream, from the popularity of Skinny Bitch (Running Press, 2005) and its successors, to the American Dietetic Association’s updated position last year blessing vegan diets as healthful and helpful in preventing and treating chronic diseases.

Most recently, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that promotes a vegan diet, has come up with a new alternative to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPyramid.gov — a Power Plate diagram in four sections: fruits, grains, vegetables and legumes.

After testing several diagrams, the Power Plate design was selected to represent the PCRM recommendations visually, says Susan Levin, R.D., M.S., the organization’s director of nutrition education. “We feel like a plate is something people can relate to for food consumption,” she says. Although the plate is divided into four equal parts, the PCRM doesn’t necessarily recommend an even quarter serving of each group. “There don’t seem to be any nutrient deficiencies associated with adjusting these portion sizes accordingly to your preference,” she says.

The PCRM’s recommendations are meant as alternatives to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published every five years by the Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA. (Currently, the guidelines for 2010 are being established.) According to Levin, the PCRM feels that its recommendations are based on science and not influenced by agriculture or food industry interests, as are the USDA’s.

No meat, eggs or dairy are included on the Power Plate. If a food group is not represented, says Levin, “There’s no need to consume it.” Though there are conflicting studies about the links between eating meat and certain types of cancers, especially colorectal and breast cancer, a British study showed that vegetarians had lower instances of cancer.

The amount of saturated fat and cholesterol, linked to heart disease and other health problems, in not only red meat, but also chicken, fish and dairy, kept them off the Power Plate, she says. (A medium steak has 10 grams of saturated fat; a chicken breast, salmon fillet or 1 cup of 2 percent milk have 3 grams.) PCRM recommends a supplement of B12, found in animal products, either from a multivitamin or fortified foods, such as cereals and soy and rice milks.

On June 23 in Washington, DC, PCRM is hosting a sold-out screening of Forks Over Knives, a documentary that follows PCRM board members Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic, and Colin T. Campbell, Ph.D., on their journey to promote a healthy diet that cuts out animal products and processed foods. Speakers include PCRM president Neal D. Barnard, M.D., who is interviewed in the film; he’s also penned a new book, The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook (Da Capo, 2010). The film currently is being scheduled for special screenings, but is expected to have an independent theatrical run in November. Sign up for the email list for updates.

What do you think about the Power Plate recommendations?

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