“It’s going to be hard not to do better than the current pyramid, which basically conveys no useful information.”

—WALTER C. WILLETT, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, on the government's plan to scrap its decades-old and largely inscrutable food pyramid for a new symbol of healthy eating to be unveiled on Thursday. The new plate-shaped symbol will be divided into the basic food groups, with half the plate taken up by fruits and vegetables. [via The New York Times]