How Healthy Meal Plate Works
How to find what you need, what is inside an article, and what the free tools do.
Healthy Meal Plate works in two parts. Search or browse health and nutrition articles by topic — find what’s actually relevant to you, not a generic feed. Alongside that, two free tools let you calculate your adult BMI using the CDC’s own calculator and look up any food’s nutrition from USDA FoodData Central.
Finding an article
The search bar sits in the header on every page — try a specific term rather than a broad one. You can also browse by topic:
Reading an article
Most articles open with a short list of key takeaways, so you can decide in a few seconds whether to keep reading. The full article follows, and many close with a frequently-asked-questions section answering the specific things people usually search for on that topic. Every article is general education, not personalised medical advice — see Nutrition Standards for exactly what that means.
Using the free tools
Two tools, both free and neither needing an account. The BMI calculator works out your BMI in your own browser — nothing you enter is sent to us — and shows which CDC weight category it falls into, with those categories and their limits explained alongside. The nutrition checker searches USDA FoodData Central, showing calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, sugars and sodium per 100 g — and saying “Not available” rather than zero where USDA has no value.