TheFoodPyramid - HOPE COMMUNITY CHURCH

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son... Matthew 28:19 - 20

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Use the Food Pyramid to guide your choices
Choose lowfat dairy and lean meat
Limit saturated fat to 10% of your calories
Base fat intake on calorie needs

Bread, Grain, Cereal and Pasta Form the Base
At the base of the food pyramid, you’ll see the group that contains breads, grains, cereals and pastas. These foods provide complex carbohydrates, which are an important source of energy, especially for a low-fat meal plan. You can make many low-fat choices from foods in this group. You’ll need 6 to 11 servings of these foods in a day. One serving of this group can be:

1 slice of bread
˝ cup of rice, cooked cereal or pasta
1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal
1 flat tortilla

Try to eat whole-grain breads, cereal and pasta for most of your servings from this group. Whole-grain foods (which are made with whole wheat flour) are less processed and retain more valuable vitamins, minerals and fiber than foods made with white flour. When you purchase whole-grain foods, look for breads and pastas with “stoneground whole wheat flour” as the first ingredient, because some “wheat” breads may be white breads with only caramel coloring added.

Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are rich in nutrients. Many are excellent sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate or potassium. They are low in fat and sodium and high in fiber. The Food Pyramid suggests 3 to 5 servings of vegetables each day. One serving of vegetables can be:

1 cup of raw leafy vegetables
˝ cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw
ľ cup of vegetable juice

The Food Pyramid suggests 2 to 4 servings of fruit each day. One serving of fruit can be:

One medium apple, orange or banana
˝ cup of chopped, cooked or canned fruit
ľ cup of fruit juice

Count only 100% fruit juice as a fruit, and limit juice consumption. Many commercial bottled juices come in containers that hold more than 2 servings at which can add lots of sugar and calories to your daily diet. Punches, ades and most fruit “drinks” have only a bit of juice and lots of sugar. Fruit sodas are sugary drinks, and they don’t count as fruit, either.

Beans, Eggs, Lean Meat and Fish
Meat, poultry and fish supply protein, iron and zinc. Non-meat foods such as dried peas and beans also provide many of these nutrients. The Food Pyramid suggests 2 to 3 servings of cooked meat, fish or poultry. Each serving should be between 2 and 3 ounces. The following foods count as one ounce of meat:

One egg
2 tablespoons of peanut butter
˝ cup cooked dry beans
1/3 cup of nuts

Choose lean meat, fish and dry beans and peas often because these are the lowest in fat. Remove skin from poultry and trim away visible fat on meat. Avoid frying these foods. Moderation is the watchword when it comes to nuts because they are high in fat.

Dairy Products
Products made with milk provide protein and vitamins and minerals, especially calcium. The Food Pyramid suggests 2 to 3 servings each day. If you are breastfeeding, pregnant, a teenager or a young adult age 24 or under, try to have 3 servings. Most other people should have 2 servings daily. Interestingly, cottage cheese is lower in calcium that most other cheeses - one cup counts as only ˝ serving of milk. Go easy on high-fat cheese and ice cream. Choose non-fat milk and yogurt and cheeses made from skim milk because they are lowest in fat.

Fats and Sweets
A food pyramid’s tip is the smallest part, so the fats and sweets in the top of the Food Pyramid should comprise the smallest percentage of your daily diet. The foods at the top of the food pyramid should be eaten sparingly because they provide calories but not much in the way of nutrition. These foods include salad dressings, oils, cream, butter, margarine, sugars, soft drinks, candies and sweet desserts.

How Much Can You Feed Your Sweet Tooth?
Sugars found naturally in fruits and milk are not a problem. It’s the added sugars that need to be limited because they provide calories but few vitamins and minerals. You’ll find sugar-laden food at the top of the Food Pyramid. Added sugars can be found in soft drinks, candy, jams, jellies, syrups and table sugar we add to coffee and cereal. Added sugar can also appear in sweetened yogurt, soups, spaghetti sauces, applesauce and other items where you wouldn’t suspect it unless you check the list of ingredients.

Here are some guidelines for added sugar based on calories in the daily food choices:

1,600 calories - Limit sugar to 6 teaspoons per day or 22 grams per day
2,200 calories - Limit sugar to 12 teaspoons per day or 44 grams per day
2,800 calories - Limit sugar to 18 teaspoons per day or 66 grams per day

So if the food label on your sweetened yogurt says a one-cup serving contains 22 grams of sugar, and your meal plan has 1,600 calories a day, you’ve eaten your day’s allotment of sugar.

What’s the Skinny on Fat? Base It On Your Caloric Needs
How much fat you can eat is based on your caloric needs. Medical experts from the American Heart Association recommend that Americans limit dietary fat to 30 percent of daily calories. Here are the fat grams allowed based on daily calories:

1,600 calories - Limit fat to 53 grams
2,200 calories - Limit fat to 73 grams
2,800 calories - Limit fat to 93 grams

You don’t need to count fat grams every day, but it’s a good idea to do a “fat checkup” occasionally to be sure you’re on the right track. Here’s how to figure the number of grams of fat that provide 30% of calories in your diet:

Multiply your total days calories by 0.30 to get your calories from fat per day. If you eat 2,200 calories, multiply 2,200 by 0.30. The result is 660 calories from fat.
Divide calories from fat per day by 9 (each fat gram has 9 calories) to get your grams of fat per day. So in our example, divide 660 calories by 9 and get 73 fat grams.

Here’s how the Food Pyramid Can Guide You:

So What’s Your Caloric Limit?
You need to have enough calories every day in order for your body to have the nutrients it needs. How many calories that actually amounts to depends on a variety of factors including your:

Age
Sex
Size
Activity level
Whether or not you are a pregnant or breastfeeding woman
Whether you have a chronic illness

The National Academy of Sciences recommends the following calorie categories:

1,600 calories - Many sedentary women and some older adults
2,200 calories - Children, teenage girls, active women and many sedentary men.
Women who are pregnant may need around 500 calories more per day and an additional 300 calories for breast-feeding.
2,800 calories - Teenage boys, active men and very active women

It’s possible that you may be between calorie categories on the chart. If you are then you will need to estimate servings. For example, some less active women may need only 2,000 calories to maintain a healthy weight. If you are at this calorie level, 8 servings from the grain group would be about right.

How Many Servings Are Right For You?
Now that you know how many calories are suggested, you can address the question of how many servings of each food group you need. Hereâ€™s a chart that can help:

Lower About 1,600	Moderate About 2,200	Higher About 2,800
Grain Group servings	6	9	11
Vegetable Group Servings	3	4	5
Fruit Group servings	2	3	4
Milk Group Servings	2-3	2-3	2-3
Meat Group	5	6	7

So What’s a Portion Anyway?

This is where the food label can come in handy. For portion size on items like canned soup, yogurt, snack foods, sauces, etc., you can discover what is considered one serving by checking the top of the food label.

Here are some samples of what makes up one serving size:

About That Nice Big Bowl of Pasta...
What’s a Serving of Bread, Cereal, Rice or Pasta?

One slice of bread
1 ounce of ready-to-eat cereal
˝ cup of cooked cereal, rice or pasta

Does One Carrot Cut It?
What’s a Vegetable Serving?

1 cup of raw, leafy vegetables
˝ cup of other vegetables cooked, or chopped raw
ľ cup of vegetable juice

It’s the Berries...
What’s a Fruit Serving?

1 medium apple, orange or banana
˝ cup of chopped, cooked or canned fruit
ľ cup of fruit juice

Remember Your Dairy
What’s a Serving of Milk, Yogurt and Cheese?

1 cup of milk or yogurt
1 ˝ ounce of natural cheese
1 ounce of process cheese (remember that processed cheese usually contains a lot of sodium)

Do You Need to Measure Servings
No. Just use servings as a general guide. Sometimes you have to estimate the food group servings. For example a generous serving of pizza counts in the grain group (crust), milk group (cheese), and vegetable group (tomato, mushrooms, peppers and onions). Beef stew would count for both meat and vegetable groups.

Remember that both pizza and beef stew can have lots of fat. It’s in the pizza cheese, sausage and pepperoni and in the meat drippings that may be used to make gravy.

What Should You Do to Gain or Lose Weight?
You’ve probably heard it before, but it’s true. The best way to lose weight is to increase the amount of physical activity you get and reduce the fat and sugar in your food choices. Remember to eat at least the minimum number of servings from the five food groups shown in the Food Pyramid. If you choose fat and sugar rich foods and eliminate healthy foods, you won’t be getting the nutrition you need. Try to choose from the lowest fat choices in the food groups.

If you need to gain weight, increase the amount of food you eat from all of the food groups. If you have lost weight unexpectedly, see your doctor.

The Food Guide Pyramid can be extremely useful - whether you want to gain weight, lose weight or maintain your weight. Eating a healthy diet is a little easier if you base your choices on the Food Pyramid.

Healthy Eating - Vegetarian Diets and Organic Foods

Vegetarianism

Some people choose to follow a vegetarian diet, which means they eat mostly plant-based foods (grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds). However, there are several different forms of vegetarian diets:

Vegans, or total vegetarians, eat only plant foods and do not eat meat, milk, eggs, or animal foods.
Lacto-vegetarians drink milk and eat milk products, such as cheese and yogurt.
Lacto-ovo vegetarians include eggs and milk products in their diets.
Semi-vegetarians may include fish and/or chicken in their diets, but they do not eat red meat.
Macrobiotic vegetarians emphasize whole grains, especially brown rice, in their diets and include vegetables, soy, legumes, and fruits. White-meat fish may be included. This diet avoids meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy.

If properly planned, vegetarian diets are healthy and can provide all the nutrients a person needs.⁷ As a group, vegetarians are less likely to:⁷

Develop high cholesterol.
Die because of coronary artery disease (CAD).
Develop high blood pressure.
Develop prostate or colorectal cancer.
Develop type 2 diabetes.
Be overweight.

When considering a vegetarian diet, many people are concerned that they will not get enough protein. This nutrient is made of building blocks called amino acids. Although the human body can make some of these amino acids, nine of them (the essential amino acids) must be obtained from food. Animal sources of protein (milk, eggs, meat, poultry, fish, and seafood) contain all the essential amino acids in the amounts our bodies need.

Plant foods contain the essential amino acids in varying amounts, so vegetarians need to eat a variety of plant foods to make sure they get enough of all nine essential amino acids. For example, legumes (cooked dried beans, dried peas, and lentils) are low in sulfur-containing amino acids (such as methionine), but they are high in another amino acid called lysine. Grains are just the opposite, so when grains and legumes are eaten together, the amino acid patterns "complement" one another. By eating both foods, vegetarians improve the overall protein quality of what they eat.

Some typical examples of foods that contain complementary proteins are:

Beans and tortillas.
Black beans and rice.
Chili and corn bread.
Pita bread with hummus (ground garbanzo beans and sesame seed paste).

You do not need to consciously combine these foods at every meal. Eating them throughout the course of a day will provide your body with adequate protein.

Protein is not the only nutrient of concern in a vegetarian diet. Vegetarians also need to make sure they are getting the following nutrients in their diets:

Vitamin B₁₂. Vitamin B₁₂ is found only in foods from animal sources, such as milk, eggs, and meat. Vegans either need to eat foods fortified with vitamin B₁₂ (such as fortified soy milk) or take a supplement that contains vitamin B₁₂.
Iron. Iron from plant foods is not absorbed as well as iron from meats. It is important to use legumes and leafy, green vegetables in the diet and not to rely too heavily on cheese (a very poor source of iron) for protein. Eating foods that contain vitamin C will improve the absorption of iron from a meal.
Calcium. Vegetarians who do not use milk or milk products need to get calcium from other sources. Soy milk fortified with calcium is a good source. There are also other good nonmilk sources of calcium, such as seeds and nuts, and certain green vegetables.
Zinc. Zinc from plant foods is poorly absorbed, and vegetarians should take care to get enough zinc in their diets. Good sources of zinc include leavened whole grains (such as whole-wheat bread), legumes (beans and lentils), soy foods, and vegetables.
Vitamin D. Vegetarians who do not use milk or milk products may not get enough vitamin D. However, soy milk is often fortified with vitamin D, as are some cereals. Your body can also make vitamin D when exposed to sunlight on a regular basis. Supplements may be necessary if you don't consume a source of vitamin D and don't get adequate sunlight.

As a vegetarian, you can still use the food guide pyramid to plan your diet. Use the following guidelines:

In the meat and meat substitutes group, use the following as a substitute for 1 oz of meat [a serving is 2 oz to 3 oz]:
- 0.5 cups cooked dry beans
- 1 egg or 2 egg whites
- 2 Tbsp nuts or seeds
- 4 oz tofu or tempeh
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter
In the milk and milk products group, use the serving sizes listed in the food guide pyramid. If you do not use milk, use soy milk fortified with calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin B₁₂. Count 1 cup as one serving. Fortified soy cheese also may be used.

Eat according to the pyramid for the other food groups. Use whole grains as much as possible, and eat at least 1 cup of dark green vegetables each day to help meet your iron needs.

You can fit a vegetarian diet into the dietary guidelines quite easily:

Eat a variety of foods. Include whole grains and a wide variety of vegetables and fruits; eat legumes, nuts, and seeds to replace meat and, if desired, dairy products and eggs.
Choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruits. Use foods closest to their natural state, fresh and unprocessed, and minimize your intake of heavily processed foods.
Choose a diet moderate in fat and low in saturated fat and cholesterol. If you eat animal foods, such as dairy products and eggs, choose lower-fat versions of these foods. Limit cheeses and other high-fat dairy foods and eggs in your diet because they have a high saturated-fat content. Don't use these foods as your main sources of protein because they may replace plant sources of protein in your diet, such as legumes, nuts, and seeds, which contribute needed iron.
Do not restrict dietary fat in children younger than 2 years old. For older children, include some foods that are higher in unsaturated fats (such as nuts, seeds, nut and seed butters, avocado, and vegetable oils, and milk products and eggs, if desired) to help meet their nutrient and energy needs.
Choose beverages and foods that limit your sugar intake. Minimize your intake of highly sweetened and heavily processed foods.

Vegans should include a source of vitamin B₁₂ (fortified foods or a supplement) in their diets. They also should include a source of vitamin D if their exposure to sunlight is limited.

If you are raising an infant or child to eat a vegetarian diet, consider the following:

Infants who are consuming only breast milk should have supplements of iron after the age of 4 to 6 months. (This is not necessary if you add iron-fortified infant cereal to the child's diet at this age.)
If your child does not get much sun exposure, you should add a food source or a supplement of vitamin D to the child's diet.
Breast-fed infants of vegan mothers should have vitamin B₁₂ supplements if the mother's diet is not fortified.⁷

Organic foods

Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that eat organically grown feed, and they are not given antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides, genetic engineering, or radiation, and its production emphasizes using renewable resources and conserving soil and water.

Organic foods, however, are not free of pesticide residues, but they do contain smaller amounts than found in nonorganic foods. They are an alternative source of foods for those who are concerned about pesticides in foods. Organic farming is also better for the environment.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets guidelines for the production of organic foods and for when the organic-food label can be used.

There is debate over whether organic foods are more nutritious than conventionally produced food, and the USDA makes no claims that organic foods are safer or more nutritious.

Vitamin and mineral supplements

Certain groups of people need specific nutrients, including:

Infants and children, who may need supplements such as iron, vitamin D and fluoride.
Girls and women, who many need calcium and folic acid supplements, for example.
People who are recovering from an accident or an illness, have a chronic disease, or are unable to eat a variety of foods.
People older than 50. Because people older than 50 tend to have trouble absorbing enough vitamin B₁₂ and calcium from their diets, it is recommended that they take a supplement or eat more of the foods that contain these nutrients.

Dietary supplements can't make up for a poor diet. They don't contain all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals found in food. For most healthy people, a balanced diet can provide all the nutrients needed for good health, and supplements are not necessary. Ask a registered dietitian or other health professional whether you need to take vitamin or mineral supplements.

For more information on vitamin and mineral supplements, see:

Special diets

Conditions in which nutrition plays an important part in treatment include:

High cholesterol.
Diabetes.
Heart failure.
Coronary artery disease.
Kidney disease.
Ulcerative colitis.
Cystic fibrosis.
Hypertension (high blood pressure).
Osteoporosis.
Food allergies.
Food intolerances (including lactose intolerance).
Celiac sprue/gluten intolerance.
Cancer.

You may get more information about diets for these conditions by contacting a registered dietitian in your area.