Understanding what to eat, when to eat it and how much to eat can sometimes be the difference between a healthy diet and an unhealthy one, that is the reason that food pyramids are so widely used in these recent times to diffuse the healthy choice confusion. Your diet will consist on many unwanted things such as cholesterol, calories, sugar and fat and these items are found in the foods that you need to consume to get the essential nutrients.. The food groups are their to be utilised and the pyramid will show you the items that you should consume most with the most being at the bottom and the least being at the top. The whole grain food stuff is found at the bottom where the pyramid is at its widest, which means that you should consume more of this that anything else on the pyramid.
You will find many bottled fruit drinks, ales and sodas that promise a full serving of fruit, but this is not recommended for the 2-4 servings of fruit that you should consume on a daily basis according to the guide provided by the food pyramid. Fruits and vegetables follow whole grains on the pyramid because they are an excellent source of vitamins and or potassium and they do not produce a lot of sodium or fat. The serving size for the vegetables as per the food pyramid is 3 to 5 on a daily basis. Of course you know that man cannot live by bread alone, so here is the meat, eggs fish and beans. These additions to the diet provide protein, zinc and iron and the food pyramid indicates 2-3 (3 ounce) servings of meat and fish for daily consumption. In addition, the way you prepare your food plays a vital role in your diet so try to avoid lots of frying and remember to remove the skin and excess fat from your meat before cooking it.
A lot of people rejoice at the sound of dairy, because they immediately draw for the ice cream and the fatty cheese, but the servings of dairy that are recommended should be more skim milk or non fat milk rather than the by-products, if you must indulge however, try to eat yogurt instead of ice-cream and eat cheese that are made from skim milk as it contains less fat. The serving size that is recommended for dairy is 2 servings per day for the average person and 3 servings for pregnant or lactating women and teenagers and young adults. Finally we are at the top of the pyramid and this is where all the good stuff are found, however these are also the stuff that we will consume the least as this is where the sugars and oils and butters and desserts are stored. The thing about these types of items is that fact that they have the most added sugar; you have already consumed enough natural sugar in your fruits and other natural foods coming up the ladder, so it is not wise to consume a lot of these things at the top which will simply push the sugar level right over the top.
Now that you understand how the food pyramid works, you should also consider a BMI calculator, which simply calculates your body mass index based on the analysis of your current weight versus your height. You will be required to input that information and the calculator will then indicate if you need to gain or lose a few pounds, or if you are ok right where you are.
