New Food Pyramid
From LoveToKnow Diet
Most of you reading this will remember learning in school about the old food pyramid that featured six basic categories. Today there's a new food pyramid in town. A few years ago the US Department of Agriculture recognized that nutritional needs are not the same for everyone; they vary greatly based on factors such as age, sex, activity level and whether or not someone is trying to lose or gain weight.
The new food pyramid is a graphical guide to how much of what foods we should eat and is much more flexible and accurate than the old pyramid. Tools on the food pyramid website can even tell you exactly how many calories you need. Here's a look at how you can take advantage of what the new pyramid website has to offer.
New Food Pyramid
The updated pyramid has a lot to offer. If you go to the US Department of Agriculture's My Pyramid Website, you will find a large array of choices that allow you to personalize the pyramid to your individual dietary needs. Here are some of the excellent (and free!) tools they offer:
My Pyramid Menu Planner This tool allows you to input all of your meals into the Planner. The Planner will then create a daily or weekly food report and a food details report. These reports analyze the types and amounts of food your eating for nutritional soundness. The Planner will even take into account the different nutritional needs of your kids and report to you if these are being met.
Furthermore, the menu planner has a very easy to use graphical interface and features a complete live demo of how get started with the planner. This is a great way to ensure that you and your entire family are eating balanced and healthy meals.
My Pyramid Tracker The Tracker is an online tool that assesses your diet quality and physical activity status while keeping in mind your fitness or weight loss goals. A superb feature of the Tracker for those trying to lose weight is the Energy Balance Calculator. It calculates your energy balance by subtracting the energy you expend from physical activity from your food calories/energy intake. This is the formula for weight loss; expend more energy than you take in. By using this calculator you can ensure that you're achieving this and guarantee weight loss results.
The Tracker is also easy and fun to use and it has a complete online tutorial about how to get started.
My Pyramid Plan This tool is a calculator that tells you the amount of each food group you need daily. You input data such as age, sex, weight, height and physical activity level and the calculator gives you a customized report of how much of each food group you should eat. This takes the guess work out of wondering just how many calories you need.
Additional Info In addition to the personalized planning tools, the new pyramid site has a huge amount of useful information that focus on helping individuals meet their dietary needs. Just some of the information on the site includes:
- Dietary recommendations for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers
- Steps to weight loss
- Specific dietary guidelines for children of all ages
- Audio and video podcasts about the pyramid
General Recommendations
The new pyramid may be all about tailoring dietary information to the needs of the individual, but there are still some basic general recommendations retained from the old pyramid. The following advice is still given by the new pyramid:
- Eat a variety of foods
- Eat less oils/fats
- Eat more fruits and vegetables
- Exercise regularly
The new pyramid and the tools on its website are a great way to help you lose weight, plan meals or make sure your kids are getting the proper nutrition. The new pyramid website also has a wealth of information to address any questions or concerns you may have.
Learn More
This page has been accessed 878 times. This page was last modified 15:58, 24 February 2009.
© 2006-2009 LoveToKnow Corp.
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