The Food Pyramid Guide – Confused By The Hype? This Guide Tells All You Need To Know.

Posted on | October 10, 2009 | 5 Comments

The food pyramid guide will help you to understand the guidelines set out by the United States Government and give you the straight up real deal about the food groups and a healthy diet.

Beginning in 1988 the US government came up with the idea of a graphic depiction with similar ideas to the one you see here. This is where the idea of food groups started.

The Food Guide Pyramid was released in 1992 which depicted the four food groups and conveyed the idea that certain groups of foods were to be eaten or consumed sparingly.

However to this day Americans remain confused about what to eat because of the many recommendations and diet plans that flood the market.

The Food Pyramid Guide that has been put out by the US Government has gone through many changes over the years.

There are now 6 food groups. A you can see on food group picture above they are all basically derived from the original 4 groups. The exception is the Fats, Oils and Sweets group.

Here are the groups broken down by the original 4 food groups.

• Fats, Oils and Sweets

• Milk, Yogurt and Cheese

• Meats, Fish, Beans and Eggs

• Vegetables

• Fruits

• Breads, Cereals and Pasta

If you’ll notice 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 quantity of that food group that you should be consuming on a daily basis.

Fats, oils and sweets should be eaten very sparingly according to the food pyramid guide. You should 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 sufficient for good health according to the United States Government.

The last group depicted in the food pyramid guide is the Breads, Cereals and Pasta group. The guide recommends 6 to 11 servings from this group per day.

One of the things that many people find confusing about this diagram is the servings and the way the recommendations are worded.

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.  Lets see if we can clear this up.

Fats:

There are good fats and oils, and there are bad fats and oils. 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. Try to make most of the oils and fat the you eat be from fish and nuts. Everybody loves peanut butter and peanut butter is great source of good fats and oils. Keep this to a minimum but a couple of ounces each day is a nice way to get these much needed nutrients.

Meats and Beans:

Try to choose lean and low fat meats like poultry and lean beef. Variety is the key here and its important to get a good mix of fish in there too. Instead of eating beef all the time try to have fish at least a few times a week and try to substitute most of your beef intake with chicken instead. When it come to beans try to have a variety in stock. some dry beans that you might want to try are black-eyed peas, chickpeas (or garbanzo beans), falafel, lentils, lima beans and navy beans. As a guideline the food pyramid guide recommends that a half of a cup of beans would make a serving.

Milk, Cheese and Yogurt:

All milk and many of the foods that are made from milk like cheese is part of this group. It is important to note here that not all foods that are made from milk would be in this category because not all of them retain enough of the calcium content to make them such. So things like cream, cream cheese and butter don’t make the cut.

Vegetables:

When it comes to vegetable you want to focus on on Dark Leafy veggies, Orange Veggies and beans or peas. Here is an example of some of the vegetables that would far in each category.

Dark leafy vegetables would include bok choy, broccoli, collard greens, dark green leafy lettuce, kale, mesclun and mustard greens. Orange vegetables would be things like carrots and sweet potatoes. Beans and peas are also part of this category.

A half a cup to a cup of this food group makes up a serving.

Grains:

This includes bread, cereal, rice and pasta. Grains are divided into two categories, Whole grains and refined grains. You should try to eat at least half whole grain. Since whole grain crackers, bread and cereal are pretty easy to come try to eat those.

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.

You should be eating about 6 to 8 ounces of grains per day depending on your age. If you are over 51 you should drop that down to 4 to 6 ounce and remember that half of that should be whole grain products.

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.

I have listed some very good books and products that can help you even further on your journey to understanding proper diet and heart healthy living.

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Health, Safety, and Nutrition for the Young Child, 7th Edition

My Food Pyramid

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