How to Build an Individual Food Pyramid

It has been three years since the well known food pyramid underwent a remarkable change by the United States Department of Agriculture. Seems like you had just gotten used to the old pyramid for 12 years when everything changed. Food groups were listed from top to bottom. The new pyramid, while remaining upright, has the food choices listed sideways. Once you understand the new pyramid it will be easy to streamline and modify your own daily diet plan and eat nutritious foods which will allow you to stay active and healthy.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Copy of the food pyramid
• Notebook
• Pen

1. Make choices from every food group. Those food groups and their respective colors include grains (orange), vegetables (green), fruits (red), dairy (blue) and a combined grouping of meat and beans (purple).
2. Notice that the widths of the bands are different from the squares on the old pyramid. For example, the orange band for grains is wider than the yellow band for fats. The idea is to eat more of the foods in the groups with wider bands.
3. See steps going up the side of the pyramid and the stick figure going up those steps. This is to give you a visual image of an active lifestyle partnered with the right food choices.
4. Have your own individual pyramid based on the choices you make. You can go to MyPyramid.gov and click on "my pyramid plan" which will allow you to fill in your age, sex and the usual amount of physical activity you get each day.
5. Click on "submit" and you will get the pyramid to match the details you put in based on your amount of physical activity, sex and age. You can also click on "Tips and Resources" to get nutrition pointers for each food group.
6. Track your progress by clicking on the "MyPyramid Tracker" and register at no cost to you. This section will help you use the nutrition and physical activity messages from the new pyramid.
7. Consider that the website will also give you nutrition and physical activity messages tailored to your needs. It will supply you with website links where you can learn even more about the new pyramid.

Tips & Warnings

• The new pyramid allows you to get the most nutrition out of your daily food choices and the calories you consume.
• For the first month write in a notebook the food choices you made and how they benefited you. This will allow you to streamline your own personal pyramid.