The Food Guide Pyramid is an outline of what to eat everyday based on the Dietary Guidelines.
It is a guide that will teach you how to choose the right diet for you, a diet that is varied rich and healthy.
Start from the base:
More than 50 % od your diet has to come from cereals, bread, pastas.. look for "whole" before the grain name on the labels.
Vegetables are important too. Eat more dark green vegetables, orange and red as well.
Focus on fruits. Choose a variety of fruits from canned to frozen to dried and be careful on fruit juices.
As you go up:
Calcium plays an important role, get your low-fat milk, yoghurt, low-fat white cheeses.
Go lean on proteins, choose the lean meats and poultry, focus on removing the skin when baking or grilling it. More fish, beans and peas are recommended.
Top of the pyramid:
Remember to go easy on fats, oils and sweets, these contain lots of sugar and butter and can be harmful for your health.
HOW MUCH DO I NEED FROM EACH CATEGORY?
1st group: Whole grains, cereals, rice and pasta: 6 to 11 servings
2nd group: fruits: 2 to 4 servings
3rd group: vegetables: 3 to 5 servings
4th group: meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, nuts: 2 to 3 servings
5th group: milk, yoghurt and cheeses: 2 to 3 servings
6th group: oils, fat and sweets: eat sparingly
BUT... WHAT COUNTS AS ONE SERVING?
The amount of food that counts as 1 serving is listed below:
Bread, cereals and pasta:
1 slice of bread= 1\2 cup of cooked cereals, rice and pasta= 80 cal
Fruits:
1 medium banana, apple or orange= 1\2 glass of fruit juice= 3 dried fruits= 60 cal
Vegetables:
1 cup of raw vegetables=1\2 cup of cooked vegetables= 35 cal
Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans and nuts:
35 g of lean meats= 55 g of fish=1\2 cup of cooked beans= 1 egg= 2 tablespoons of peanut butter= 55 cal
Milk, yoghurt and cheeses:
1 cup of low- fat milk(250 ml)=60 g of low- fat cheeses = 3 tablespoons of labne=90 cal
I will not focus on the last group. Sweets, fats an oils must be used sparingly but focus on the good oils, ones that have the unsaturated fat like olive and canola oils, avocado. These sources of fat are good for your health and can lower your cholesterol levels.
Hi Mira,
Would like to know what is good... Sweetners or Brown Sugar instead of white sugar. Can anyone replace sweetners for sugar, or is it a hard and fast rule for diabetics.
Thanks
hi pam, hope your doing fine.
Sweetners is good to have instead of white sugar, it is not absorbed in the body like white or brown sugar.
So it is a very good option for diabetic people.
But some people are allergic to aspartame, so they need to check the sweetners that dont contain that substance.
For diet, it is advised to have sweetners instead of brown as well, because it does not hae calories.
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