Learn About The Food Pyramid Guide And What It Can Do For You
The food pyramid guide will help you to be familiar with the guidelines set out by the US Government and give you the straight up real deal about the four food groups in the food pyramid guide and a heart smart healthy diet.
Starting in 1988 the Government in the US devised a graphic depiction of what was considered the right way to eat. This is where the idea of food groups started.
However to this day Americans remain confused about what to consume because of the many recommendations and diet plans that flood the market.
Read more about The food pyramid guide
The exception is the Fats, Oils and Sweets group.
Here are the groups broken down by the original 4 food groups.
* Fruits
If you’ll observe from the picture above, each groups area within the pyramid takes up a different amount of space. This is what is used to depict the amount of that food group that you should be consuming on a day by day basis.
You ought to be getting 2 to 3 servings a day from the Milk and Cheese group and 2 to 3 servings from the Meats, Beans and Eggs group.
3 to 5 servings of Vegetables should be consumed and 2 to 4 servings from the Fruit group should be plenty for good health according to the United States Government.
The remaining group depicted in the food pyramid guide is the Breads, Cereals and Pasta group. The food pyramid guide says that you should be eating around 6 to 11 half cup servings each and every day.
11 servings of pasta? Thats seems odd; most people eat three times a day so its hard to judge how much pasta you should be eating on a daily basis.
Good fats and oils come from fish, nuts and vegetable oils. Bad fats and oils usually come in things like butter, stick margarine, shortening and lard. The food pyramid guide recommends that you try to make most of the oils and fat the you eat be from fish and nuts. Most people love peanut butter and peanut butter is a great way to get some of the good fats and oils. Obviously you don’t want to eat too much peanut butter but a couple of ounces each day is a nice way to get these much needed nutrients.
Meats and Beans:
Choosing lean meats like fish and poultry great. Instead of eating beef all the time try to have fish at least a few times a week and try to eat more chicken instead of beef. When it come to beans try to have a variety in stock. This is an example of a variety of beans that you might want to try are black-eyed peas, chickpeas (or garbanzo beans), falafel, lentils, Lima beans and navy beans. According to the food pyramid guide a half of a cup of beans would make a serving.
Milk, Cheese and Yogurt:
You need to understand that not all foods that are made with milk would be in this category because not all of them maintain enough of the calcium content to make them such.
Dark leafy vegetables would include bok choy, broccoli, collard greens, dark green leafy lettuce, kale, mesclun and mustard greens. Beans and peas are also part of this group.
One serving would be about a half of a cup.
This includes bread, cereal, rice and pasta. You could divide grains into two categories, Whole grains and refined grains. You should try to eat at least half whole grain.
Oats are another good source of whole grains also brown rice instead of white rice if you are one to eat a lot of rice.
Depending upon your age, you should be eating about 6 to 8 ounces of grains per day.
I hope that this helps to clear up any confusion that you may have had about what makes a healthy diet according to the food pyramid guide. I have only touched on the information that is available here.
Health, Safety, and Nutrition for the Young Child, 7th Edition
