| Eating a variety of foods in moderate amounts is the key to healthy nutrition. | ||||
| Imagine all foods stacked up in a four-story pyramid. Not in a big heap but in a neat structure with four levels for the various types of food. When you plan your daily diet, climb up the pyramid and visit every level. Make sure that you select something from every food group. You take a lot from the ground level and from the second floor. But the higher you climb up the pyramid, the less you put into your basket. And at the top floor of the pyramid, use only two fingers to make your pick. |
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| For an optimally balanced diet, follow the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid. The image you see below has been kindly provided by the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). |
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Actually, there should be a picture of a delicious layer cake in the top section of the pyramid but, I guess, some dietitian censored it.
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| Build your diet on a solid basis of grain foods such as bread, rice, cereal, and pasta. Grain carbohydrates are healthful! The fattening part of cakes and cookies is their masked high fat content. |
To get enough healthy carbohydrates, eat plenty
of grain-based snacks that are low in fat and calories, like graham crackers,
pretzels, and fat-free flavored rice cakes. |
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| Eat at least five servings of fruits or fruit juices and vegetables every day. Add protein and minerals from low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese as well as from lean meat, skinless poultry, fish, legumes, eggs, and nuts. However, keep portions of meat, poultry, and fish to about the size of the palm of your hand (about 3 ounces). For meatless meals, nuts are a good source of protein. |
Use nuts, like almonds, to add crunch and an
appealing flavor to salads, pastas, stirfries, and steamed vegetables. One-third cup of nuts substitutes for 1 ounce of cooked lean meat and provides about 290 calories. |
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Slimming diets, which severely restrict the
variety of food intake, and prolonged fasting may be hazardous to your
health.By changing your eating habits and sticking to a fat-reduced, balanced diet, you will be able not only to slim down but also to keep your ideal weight. |
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| Cornell and Harvard University researchers have developed an official Asian Diet Pyramid. It reflects the traditional, plant-based rural diets of Asia which are significantly lower in total fat, and have been linked to very low rates of breast and colon cancer. | ||||
| The Asian diet emphasizes a wide base of rice and large quantities of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Small daily servings of fish are optional; sweets, eggs, and poultry are recommended no more than weekly, red meat no more than monthly. Dairy products are largely absent in these diets, but moderate consumption of plant-based beverages including tea, sake, beer, and wine is
recommended daily. |
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| Link to Asian Diet Pyramid | go to front page | go to art gallery | ||
