With all the health and nutrition information available, it can be hard to figure out just what to eat as part of a healthy diet. The U.S. Department of Agriculture developed the food pyramid to be a simple picture that people can use to remind them of what is important when it comes to eating healthily.
Function
The USDA developed the food pyramid, the latest version of which is available on MyPyramid.gov, to help teach people what types of food and how much of each type of food they should be eating according to current dietary recommendations. This symbol can make it easier for people to make healthy food choices.
Food Groups
Each colored stripe on the food pyramid stands for a different food group. Orange is for grains, green is for vegetables, red is for fruits, yellow is for oils, blue is for milk and purple is for meats and beans. Having a stripe of each color on the pyramid indicates that people should eat something from each group every day, and that people should eat a variety of different foods.
Amounts
The width of the stripe indicates whether people should eat more or less of the foods contained in a particular food group, and narrowing of the stripe as it nears the top shows the importance of moderation, according to MyPyramid.gov. People should eat more of the foods that are low in fat and sugar, and the more active a person is the more he is allowed to eat overall.
Activity
The food pyramid has a person climbing steps up the side of the pyramid to show the importance of getting physical activity each day. Physical activity helps balance out the amount of calories eaten each day, as well as helping with weight loss or weight maintenance, depending on the amount of physical activity that a person does overall.
Potential
The food pyramid can be personalized by visiting MyPyramid.gov and entering in the requested information, including weight, height, age and activity level. This will give a person a recommended amount of calories to consume, as well as the number of servings she should eat from each food group. The website also has more detailed information on what foods fall within each food group, which foods are healthiest within each group and what constitutes a serving size, since not all this information can fit onto a simple symbol like the food pyramid.
Other Food Pyramids
The USDA MyPyramid is one of the better known food pyramids, but there are also other food pyramids as well. They are similar in nature, with the different food groups represented on the pyramid by different sized blocks depending on how much of each food group and how often a person is meant to eat from a particular food group. The Harvard School of Public Health designed its Healthy Eating Pyramid to show its idea of healthy eating, since it differs in some areas from that of the USDA. Other pyramids include the Asian, Latin, Mayo Clinic, Mediterranean and vegetarian food pyramids.
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