Food Pyramid

You can also use the Food Pyramid to help you choose a healthy diet using a variety of foods. It groups foods into five categories and suggests the number of servings you need from each group. You need to eat enough food from each of the five groups each day and select different foods from within each group. In addition you need to limit the amount of fats, oils and sweets that you eat. Following is a summary of the food categories in the Food Pyramid:

Food Group	Recommended Servings	Selected Foods and Serving Sizes
Bread Cereal Rice Pasta	6 - 11	Bread - 1 slice Cereal - 1 oz. ready to eat Cooked cereal, rice or pasta ½ cup Bagel, hamburger bun, English muffin ½ med.
Vegetable	3 - 5	Raw or cooked vegetables - ½ cup Raw leafy vegetables - 1 cup Vegetable juice - ¾ cup
Fruits	2 - 4	Dried fruit - ¼ cup Canned fruits - ½ cup Fruit juice - ¾ cup Fruits such as apples, bananas, pears - 1 med. Fruits such as grapes, melons - ½ cup
Milk, Yogurt and Chees	2 - 3	Milk - 1 cup Cheese - 1 ½ oz. Yogurt - 8 oz. Ice Cream - 1 ½ cups Cottage cheese - 2 cups
Meat, Poultry, Fish, Beans, Nuts, Eggs	2 - 3	Meat, poultry, or fish - 2-3 oz. cooked Dry beans - 1 cup cooked Peanut Butter - 4 Tbsp. Eggs - 2 med.

ADAPTIVE MECHANISMS

If your eating habits are consistently poor and do not fulfill the food pyramid, your body will adapt in an attempt to compensate. Usually, when this happens there are negative consequences. For example:

• If your intake of food is consistently lower than it should be, your metabolism will slow down in an attempt to conserve calories.
• If you do not get a sufficient amount of calcium your body will take calcium from your bones to perform other important functions that calcium performs in your body.
• If your protein intake is insufficient, your body will break down lean body mass to provide the amino acids that it constantly needs to function efficiently.

When you eat is just as important, maybe even more important, than how much you eat. The following simple guidelines may help you to be successful:

• You should eat whenever you are hungry. If you adopt this guideline you will only be successful if you learn to make good choices when you eat.
• You need to eat when it is time for you to eat whether you are hungry or not. It is time for you to eat when you wake-up in the morning and, you should never go for longer than four or five hours while you are awake, without eating something,
• You should try not to eat a large quantity of food late in the evening, however, you may need a healthy low-calorie snack after dinner, particularly if you have eaten your evening meal early and you do not go to bed until late at night.

If this plan is to be successful you need to also keep in mind that you should never continue eating once you start to feel full.

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU EAT?

If you are to be successful at controlling your weight and the amount of fat you accumulate, it is important for you to determine how much food you should eat. There is a "fine line" between eating too much and too little.

Most people believe that if they are to be successful at controlling their weight, then they must restrict the amount of food that they eat. This is the premise that most diets are based upon. However we have known for years that diets do not work. If you do not eat a sufficient amount of food, you will probably not get a sufficient amount of each of the essential nutrients that your body needs. This will result in a loss of lean body weight, and your metabolism will slow down making fat loss almost impossible. If you eat too much food you will gain weight and probably accumulate an excessive amount of body fat. Try to vary your foods from the different groups in the food pyramid

What Determines How Much You Should Eat Each Day?

The number of calories that you should eat each day basically depends on how many calories you use and whether you are trying to lose weight, gain weight or simply maintain your present weight. There are a number of factors that determine how many calories you will use each day. Probably the most important are:

• How much lean body weight you have
• How active your lifestyle is
• How much exercise you do

How active your lifestyle is will probably be the most important criteria to consider when estimating this. If you sit for most of the day you will burn fewer calories than someone who is constantly on his/her feet each day and moving. For example, consider the difference in energy expenditure between a secretary and a nurse. A secretary will usually spend most of the working day sitting whereas a nurse is probably on his/her feet for most of the day moving from one patient to another and will rarely sit down. The activities that you perform each day as part of your work and during the hours that you do not work, basically determine your lifestyle. Related Articles:

• Good Nutrition
• Basics Of Nutrition
• Caloric Intake