In response to high rates of obesity in the U.S. a 2005 version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Guide Pyramid, called MyPyramid, replaced the old version of the food guide pyramid. This will be replaced with a new version in 2011. MyPyramid provides useful nutrition information to help children and adults make healthy food choices.
Individualized
Diet recommendations vary from one individual to the next. One benefit of using MyPyramid is that calorie and meal plans are individualized based on sex, age, weight, height and activity level to help you meet and maintain a healthy body weight. If you're overweight, you can choose a meal plan to help you work toward a healthier weight.
Specific Audiences
Another advantage of using MyPyramid to make food choices is that is provides information and meal plans for specific audiences and different population groups, such as preschool children, older children, pregnant women and breast-feeding women. The MyPyramid website also provides useful information regarding vegetarian diets, and provides vegetarian options for meal plans.
Meal Planning
MyPyramid Plan is a feature of MyPyramid that creates individualized meal plans for children and adults. Food groups in the MyPyramid meal plans include meat and beans, milk, grains, fruits, vegetables, oils and extra calories. Eggs, dried peas and beans, nuts and seeds fall into the meat and beans group. Yogurt, cheese and milk products are in the milk group. For example a 30-year-old woman who is 5 feet, 3 inches tall, weighing 120 Ibs. and who exercises 30 to 60 minutes per day would require 2,000 calories to maintain her current body weight. Her meal plan consists of 5.5 oz. of the meat and beans group, 6 oz. grains, 3 cups from the milk group, 2 cups of fruit, 2 1/2 cups of vegetables, 6 tsp. of oils and 265 extra calories.
Menu Planning
The MyPyramid menu planner is more detailed than the meal plans. The menu planner allows you to input preferred foods into a customized meal plan, to help make sure your diet matches MyPyramid recommendations.
Diet Analysis Feature
MyPyramid Tracker is another feature of MyPyramid that analyzes the food composition of your diet. MyPyramid Tracker includes information such as amounts of daily calories, protein and other essential nutrients in your diet. MyPyramid Tracker also compares your diet with your meal plan recommendation, and includes a physical activity assessment.
Calorie Calculator Feature
MyPyramid provides a calorie calculator, called MyFood-A-pedia, which is a resource that helps determine how many calories are in foods. Information regarding the type and quantity of foods is necessary for MyFood-A-pedia to calculate calories in each food. This tool is useful when you're trying to plan meals that meet your MyPyramid calorie recommendation.
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