USDA's MyPlate (eating guidelines) is similar to HBPP (investing guidelines)

[Odysseusa]

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

[moda0306]

This seems a lot more like the "canned" portfolios on smartmoney.com with 60% stocks for a 50-year-old than a HBPP.

I just think there's both a simultaneous vagueness and false-precision with this, as odd as it sounds.

Further, it stinks of lobbying influence.  So many crappy foods can fit into the grains portion it's almost like saying "bonds" in a portfolio without getting into detail are appropriate.  It's so important to specify what kind of bonds, in fact, that simply stating "bonds" to a newby investor is giving them a half-truth that could do all kinds of damage if they move forward with the wrong type thinking they're adequately protected from large losses in their stock portion.

[Storm]

As long as I see a "dairy" group on any USDA food chart I will automatically assume the lobbying dollars of the cattle industry are hard at work.  The "dairy" group is laughable to me because we can get all the calcium we need from green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, and kale, without the saturated fats.

If we had a "hot dog" group you would obviously assume Oscar Mayer paid handsomely for that advertising; I wonder why it is nobody suspects anything is strange about having a dairy group?