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The New Food Guide Pyramid
The “new and improved” Food Guide Pyramid is now called a Food Guidance System or MyPyramid and it’s sporting a new approach to eating well. It’s still about balance, variety and moderation … but it’s been updated.
(source: http://www.mypyramid.gov)
There are six colored, vertical bands in the new pyramid. Each band represents a different food group: grains, vegetables, fruit, dairy, fats and protein. The relative importance of each food group in the diet is shown by the different widths of the bands. The wider the band at the bottom of the pyramid, the greater proportion of your diet it should contain.
It’s still about balance, variety and moderation … but it’s been updated. |
The new pyramid has taken the old amorphous “servings” and put them in what is hoped to be easier-to-understand portion size terms. You can view actual serving sizes at www.mypyramid.gov.
MyPyramid introduces a brand new term, “discretionary calories,” to account for food choices which may contain more sugar, more fat, or fewer nutrients than other food choices. For instance, puddings, ice cream, and frozen yogurt are technically in the milk group because of their milk-based ingredients, but they most likely take up some of your “discretionary calories” too because of the amount of fat and/or sugar they contain. If your protein choices are pre-breaded nuggets (which tend to be high in fat) then they also take up some of your discretionary calories in addition to the protein servings they meet.
Everyone has room for discretionary food choices, but the amounts vary depending on your calorie needs. For many people, the bulk of discretionary calories often come from the foods chosen for taste, not nutrition. Even a healthy diet can contain chips, candy and cookies, but the idea here is to fill up first on the good stuff, then, if interested, include “discretionary” types of foods.
Even a healthy diet can contain chips, candy and cookies. |
Some foods may seem hard to place within the pyramid, such as pizza, burritos and sushi. They fit into more than one category. They can provide you with nutrients from the grain, protein, and vegetable groups, so they can be counted as servings from all three.
Don’t get hung up on a “perfect fit” for all your foods. A healthy diet is a balance of nutritious foods eaten over the course of time. Eating foods from all groups on the pyramid, in the proportions recommended, gives you the balance and fuel your body needs.
Recognizing that one diet doesn’t fill all, MyPyramid is designed to be your Pyramid and can be when you log on to www.mypyramid.gov. Once you do, you can use the site to figure out how much food and how many calories you should eat based on your age, gender, and level of physical activity.
Top 10 Ways to Eat a Balanced Diet
- When eating grain foods, try to include at least ½ of your grain choices from whole grains such as whole wheat bread, whole grain cereals and brown rice.
- Eat a serving of fruits and/or veggies at each meal and snack.
- Include nonfat dairy products such as skim milk or yogurt for protein, calcium and taste.
- Include some “good fat” such as olive oil-based salad dressings. Try and avoid trans-fats in processed foods.
- Include some “discretionary” foods everyday. They taste good and should be included in a sensible way.
- To understand what a serving is, check out the portion sizes at www.mypyramid.gov.
- Look for lean sources of protein such as boneless chicken breasts, lean meat and fish to include at most meals.
- Enjoy a variety of fruit …but try and limit fruit juice.
- Don’t restrict your intake …check out mypyramid.gov to find a reasonable number of servings to include daily.
- Enjoy all food … just remember balance.
Can healthy eating and college life go together? Absolutely! Get the nutrition facts you need in the book Eating Well on Campus by Ann Litt, M.S., R.D., L.D.
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