The New Food Pyramid vs MyPlate — What Changed in 2026

RealFood.gov's inverted pyramid replaced the plate in January 2026. See what changed, side by side — and keep using the plan calculator the government removed, free.

On January 7, 2026, USDA and HHS released the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines, launched RealFood.gov, and retired MyPlate.gov — taking the interactive MyPlate Plan calculator offline. No federal site has rebuilt it.

What changed on January 7, 2026

  • MyPlate.gov website retired: The standalone MyPlate.gov consumer site was retired and now redirects visitors to RealFood.gov and the new edition. The MyPlate Plan calculator, food-group pages, portion guides, recipes, and educational resources are no longer surfaced on the site.
  • 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans released: USDA and HHS jointly released the 2025–2030 edition, available at RealFood.gov. The edition's tagline is "Eat real food." It emphasizes whole foods over highly processed foods, increases the protein recommendation relative to the prior edition, and takes a stricter position on added sugars and refined carbohydrates.
  • MyPlate visual replaced with an inverted food pyramid: The 2025–2030 edition retired the MyPlate plate as the federal nutrition icon. It is replaced with an inverted pyramid that places protein, dairy, healthy fats, fruits, and vegetables at the wide top, with whole grains and refined carbohydrates at the narrow bottom — a deliberate inversion of the 1992 USDA Food Guide Pyramid.
  • MyPlate Plan calculator removed: The interactive personalized food-pattern calculator that lived at myplate.gov/myplate-plan was removed and was not rebuilt on RealFood.gov. As of this writing there is no replacement personalized calculator on a federal site; RealFood.gov instead surfaces an AI meal-planning assistant.
  • MyPlate brand partially preserved for school nutrition: USDA's Food and Nutrition Service continues to use MyPlate-branded materials for the Team Nutrition school-meal program at fns.usda.gov/tn/myplate. The MyPlate visual still appears in school-program contexts even though it has been removed from consumer-facing federal nutrition guidance.

What MyPlate.food provides

MyPlate.food brings it back, free: your personalized food-group plan from the same IOM energy equations and USDA Food Pattern tables, the National Academies DRI nutrient set, and all 1,072 MyPlate Kitchen recipes — ingredients, directions, and nutrition intact. Unlike an archived mirror, the tools here stay maintained and show their math with named sources. Independent; not affiliated with USDA.

Current federal nutrition materials

Where to find official USDA and HHS guidance after the January 2026 transition.

Frequently asked questions

What happened to MyPlate.gov?

On January 7, 2026, USDA retired the MyPlate.gov website. Visitors are now redirected to RealFood.gov and the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines. The MyPlate Plan calculator, food-group education pages, portion guides, recipes, and other consumer-facing resources are no longer surfaced on the site.

What happened to the MyPlate Kitchen recipes?

The 1,072 MyPlate Kitchen recipes that USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) and SNAP-Ed published on MyPlate.gov were removed when the site was retired. Federal works are public domain in the United States, so MyPlate.food preserves the complete recipe library at myplate.food/recipes — every recipe with the original ingredients, step-by-step directions, full nutrition data per serving, and the food-group breakdown that matched the MyPlate calculator's output. The original myplate.gov source URL is linked on each recipe page for provenance.

What is RealFood.gov?

RealFood.gov is the USDA/HHS consumer-facing nutrition site launched on January 7, 2026 alongside the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It hosts the full text of the new edition, an AI meal-planning assistant, and the inverted food pyramid that replaced MyPlate as the federal nutrition icon.

Will USDA build a new personalized calculator on RealFood.gov?

USDA has not publicly announced plans to rebuild the MyPlate Plan calculator on RealFood.gov. The launch press release framed RealFood.gov around an AI meal-planning assistant and educational content rather than a personalized food-pattern calculator like the prior MyPlate Plan. If that changes, this page will be updated.

Why does MyPlate.food use the 2020–2025 edition instead of the 2025–2030 edition?

MyPlate.food preserves the MyPlate-format calculator. The 2025–2030 edition (released January 7, 2026) replaced MyPlate with an inverted food pyramid. To remain a MyPlate-format tool, MyPlate.food uses the 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines tables — the last edition that included MyPlate as the federal nutrition icon. Users who want the current 2025–2030 framework should visit RealFood.gov.

Is myplate.food affiliated with USDA?

No. MyPlate.food is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or any federal agency. See the footer disclaimer.

Is the MyPlate brand entirely retired?

Not entirely. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service continues to use MyPlate-branded materials for the Team Nutrition school-meal program at fns.usda.gov/tn/myplate. What was removed in January 2026 was the consumer-facing MyPlate.gov site, the MyPlate Plan calculator, and the MyPlate visual as the federal nutrition icon for adults.