If you're thinking about changing your diet to a healthier eating plan, you may check out the Food Pyramid guidelines for guidance on what's good to eat. But while the United States Department of Agriculture Food Pyramid is the one most people are familiar with, it's not the only pyramid plan for better nutrition. The Harvard School of Public Health and MayoClinic.com also offer pyramid food plans that are in some ways easier to decipher than the government's colorful but somewhat confusing pyramid.
Definition
A pyramid food guide is simply a visual illustration that assigns different types of food to the sections of a pyramid. The space allotted each type allows you to see its importance in your daily diet plan. Desserts, for example, are never found at the base, or widest part of the pyramid. While the sections in most pyramids are divided from each other by horizontal lines, in 2005 the Department of Agriculture turned their pyramid so that the lines run vertically. Color coding helps you see which sections are larger and more important in your diet.
Divisions
Every food pyramid divides foods into basic categories, such as fats, proteins, grains or carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, dairy, nuts, beans and sweets. Different pyramids use different designations. The Harvard School of Public Health adds a somewhat confusing bottom layer of exercise to their pyramid, with what looks like a pair of socks right in the middle. On closer inspection, the socks are standing on a scale.
Reading the Plan
Some pyramids, such as the Mayo Clinic's versions, are easier to read than others; when you click on a section, it tells you how many servings to eat each day. MyPyramid, the government version, is extremely difficult to decipher, since clicking on the colored bars gives you a description of what the color represents but not how much of it you should eat. You need to click on another section, and then another, to finally get the information you need for your age group. While this is more specific than most pyramids, it's also less informative at a glance.
Choosing a Pyramid
Not surprisingly, every website with a food pyramid thinks theirs is best. One nice thing about MayoClinic.com's pyramids is that the website provides several, including a Latin American, Mediterranean, Asian and vegetarian version, as well as their own version and MyPyramid. This allows you to adopt the pyramid that best suits your eating habits. The MyPyramid plan gives you more detail than the others, which may be too much to sort through for some people.
Following a Plan
All the pyramid plans allow for some desserts and give basic tips on adding exercise, substituting healthy unsaturated oils for saturated oils, and choosing the best proteins. None of the plans assumes you'll never eat a candy bar again or that you'll stick with similarly unrealistic goals. Following any of these plans ensures better nutrition than the diets most Americans already eat.
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