WASHINGTON - The government flipped the 13-year-old food pyramid on its side Tuesday, added a staircase for exercise and offered a dozen different models, all aimed at helping Americans trim their ...

Chris Pippenger has the old food pyramid posted on the refrigerator of her Gulfport home. She makes sure her kids drink milk every day and packs granola in their lunch.

Federal officials are replacing the food pyramid with a full plate — and while experts say that the new approach is an imperfect solution, it's a vast improvement on the much-maligned My Pyramid.

The old food pyramid, while seldom adhered to by most Americans, clearly showed how many servings of each food group people needed per day.

The USDA replaced the food pyramid with a new nutritional icon called MyPlate. Foodies and nutritionists, from Padma Lakshmi to the South Beach Diet creator, weigh in on the redesign.

It almost made the old food pyramid from 1992, which appeared to favor grains disproportionately and measured units with the ambiguous “serving,” look appealing by comparison.

The nearly 20-year-old food pyramid will soon give way to a new symbol. Speculation is it will be a dinner plate with sections representing the most important food groups.

The food pyramid also recommended generous amounts of vegetables (including potatoes, another plentiful source of complex carbohydrates), fruit and dairy products, and at least two servings a day ...

Last week, first lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack unveiled a new, simple and brightly colored plate-shaped icon to replace the old, complex and tired-looking food pyramid.

And now, the government is about to shake up the old food pyramid. That's already set off a scramble among food producers.

Here at what the Brits call Boxing Day, leftovers abound. Turkey and ham, roast beef and tofurkey crowding the fridge. So what better day to address the question of food and its abundance in our na… ...