After reading through a few more of the articles mentioned below (post immediately preceding this one), I took a few minutes to sort out what an average day would look like, food-wise, if someone followed the new guidelines.

All in all, it’s not so bad, although the fats and sweets part (the important bit, really) is a bit unrealistic. Here’s what a typical day would look like, according to my half-assed research, if you followed these guidelines:

Breakfast:
* 473ml (15oz) Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice (2.5 servings fruit, equiv)
* 4oz cereal (w/ added All Bran) w/ 4oz milk (4 servings grain, half serving dairy)

Lunch:
* large spinach salad w/ raspberry vinaigrette (2 servings veg, 1 serving fat)
* bottle of water or another bottle of juice (plausibly 2.5 servings fruit)

Snack:
* 1/3 c nuts (1 serving nuts, seeds, legumes)
* 1c fruit salad (2 serving fruit)
* latte (1/2 serving diary)

Dinner:
* Fettucini w/ garlic + mushroom meat sauce + cheese (1 serving grain, 1/2 serving veg, 2 serving meat, 2/3 serving diary)
* Fresh whole wheat bread w/ balsamic/olive oil dip (2 serving grain, 1 serving fat)
* Glass of red wine

Totals (vs recommended)
* grains: 7 (7-8)
* vegetables: 2.5 (4-5)
* fruits: 4.5 (4-5)
* dairy: 1.66 (2-3)
* meat: 2 (2)
* nuts, seeds, legumes: 1 (4-5/wk)
* fat + oil: 2 (2-3/wk)
* sweets: 0 (5/wk)

This isn’t so bad, but it’s still more than I typically eat in a day, as I almost never have breakfast or a huge snack like that. What I should do is keep track of what I actually eat for a week or two and see how far my actual diet diverges from these recommendations. I suspect I eat easily 3-4x more “fat and oil” than I should, probably 2x as much meat, half as much fruit + veg, and not nearly enough dairy.