New Food Guide Pyramid Everyone

New Food Guide Pyramid

Everyone has his own eating patterns and habits. Some prefer more carbohydrates while other prefer proteins. But for a diet to be considered balanced and healthy, it should have a combination of all essential mineral, vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates. Some experts suggest that fats are also good as long as they are not idle trans fats. In order to regulate people's diet or at least help people make more conscious decisions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has come up with the new Food Guide Pyramid, which is an improvement over the old one.

United States has one of the highest rates of obesity in children and to counter this problem the new Food Guide pyramid includes lots of whole grains and even stresses the need for exercise. I am personally a very health conscious person and prefer to eat more whole grains and vegetables than others. I am not into fast food and thus can easily avoid the temptation of greasy French fries and cheese/mayonnaise burgers. But my friend, Sarah, is not like me at all. Though she cannot be considered a fast food junkie, she still consumes a lot of these types of unhealthy food than she should at her age. However it is still great that she goes to the gym and keeps herself in shape. However her doctor told her that she would still need to cut down on fat intake because it can hurt her heart seriously.

My food pyramid would include the following:

at the bottom most layer, I can place dairy products and vegetables at the middle section, it would be whole grains and fruits and at the top most it would be fast food.

Sarah would however be quite different:

at the bottom most layer, she would place carbohydrates in the middle section, it would be fast food and fruits fall in the top most layer

Sarah understands very well that she needs to improve her diet but over the years she has learned to balance her favorite food with exercise because for her the most important thing is staying in shape. What she fails to understand is that the calories she is consuming are all going to waste because they are not helping her heart, her blood circulation or her skin for that matter.

A on the other hand do need to include more exercise in my pyramid. I do walk now and then but more exercise is still very important. I need to cut down on trans fat too but my doctor says my pyramid isn't all that lopsided and one or two changes will be all that I need.

It is interesting to note that the new pyramid offered by USDA has made it clear that protein doesn't mean meat alone. It was often a problem for me when I wanted to increase my intake of proteins and people would suggest more meat. I like meat but not to the extent that I can consume some pieces every day. For that reason, I was looking for alternatives and it was good to see that government has included protein-rich peanut butte as one of the alternatives to meat.

The pyramid has been approved by many but also criticized by some. Though the basic structure is one that nutritionists wouldn't be arguing about but critique has focused on category classifications. In the bread category for example, why haven't the whole grain and high fiber been stressed? White bread is not the same as whole grain bread and since Pyramid was all about healthy eating, it should have mentioned whole grain bread instead of just any kind of bread.

Similarly some people wonder where do most food fall. If you go for apple pie for example, would that be classified as sweet dessert or fruit since it contains apples. People are also uncertain about portion sizes and what size is recommended for which category. When they say you should have five servings of vegetables and fruits, what does that really mean? Is there any standard serving size? With every other outlet offering super sized serving, people wonder what an ordinary serving size would be. Hopefully the next time, U.S. department of agriculture comes up with a pyramid, they would also include the exact size of serving.

The pyramid also doesn't say anything about water. How come the food guide completely ignores water? Isn't water supposed to be really healthy? The pyramid should focus a lot on water intake as it helps in keeping the system running smoothly. It is also unfortunate that pyramid doesn't categorize fats. While some fats are bad for the heart such as those found in donuts and cake, there are others that prevent diseases such as those in nuts and fish.