MYPYRAMID


Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005, serve as the U.S. federal nutrition policy(USDHHS & USDA, 2005). These guidelines form the basis for the MyPyramid Food guidance system unveiled in April 2005. MyPyramid is applicable to Americans over age 2. By introducing all Americans to MyPyramid and its slo-gan, “Steps to a Healthier You,” the USDA hopes to help people make informed and healthier food choices. These choices can lead to a decrease in major nutrition-related chronic diseases, such as anemia, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and alcoholic cirrhosis.

MyPyramid is the former Food Guide Pyramid tipped on its side. The color bands in MyPyramid represent the types of foods that should be con-sumed, and the width of the band denotes the approximate relative quantity of each food that should be consumed. In addition, MyPyramid incorporates the concept of physical activity into its design. A person climbing the stairs denotes the importance of physical activity in one’s daily life, just as the food groups denote daily food intake. Personalization of one’s diet is easier to accomplish by accessing the MyPyramid.gov Web site, where age, gender, and physical activity can be keyed in and more specific nutrition guidelines are provided. Twelve different pyramids are available on the Web site using these parameters. The 12 pyramids range from daily intake levels of 1,000 to 3,200 calories. By following the appropriate pyramid, the individual should be able to maintain a healthy body weight and decrease the risk of nutrition-related chronic diseases. Quantities are stated in household measures such as cups and ounces instead of the servings that were used in the Food Guide Pyramid.

MyPyramid has the following features:

MyPyramid Plan.Provides a quick estimate of what and how muchfood you should eat from the different food groups by entering your age, gender, and activity level.

MyPyramid Tracker(www. My pyramid tracker .gov)Provides moredetailed information on your diet quality and physical activity status by comparing a day’s work of foods eaten with current nutrition guidance 

Inside MyPyramid.Provides in-depth information for every foodgroup, including recommended daily amounts in commonly used measures, like cups and ounces, with examples and everyday tips. Included in this section are recommendations for choosing healthy oils, discretionary calories, and physical activity.

Start Today.Offers tips and resources that include download able suggestions on all the food groups and physical activity and provides a downloadable worksheet to track what you are eating.

MyPyramid has six color bands representing five food groups and oils. The bands are wider at the bottom, representing foods with little or no solid fats, added sugars, or caloric sweeteners, and become narrower at the top, in-dicating that the foods that contain fats and sugars should be limited. The five food groups represented along with oils have not changed. They are the following:

 • Grains—bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group • Vegetable group

• Fruit group

• Milk, yogurt, and cheese group

 • Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts group • Fats, oils, and sweets group

The emphasis of MyPyramid, which takes its guidance from the DietaryGuidelines for Americans, 2005, is not on a percentage of intake but on dailyservings. Depending on the information one enters into MyPyramid, a calorie level will be individually determined.

Bread, Cereal, Rice, and Pasta Group

The largest section of MyPyramid is made up of the grains—the bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group. As the table shows, the number of servings from grains is established with the recommendation that at least half of the servings should be whole grains. Whole grains provide dietary fiber, B vitamins, iron, and magnesium. Enriched products also contain B vitamins and iron, but if they are not made from whole grains, they contain little dietary fiber.

Vegetable Group

 The food intake patterns have established the number of daily servings per calorie level of vegetable. All vegetables are included in the vegetable group: green and leafy, yellow, starchy, and legumes. Vegetables provide carbohydrates; dietary fiber; vitamins A, B-complex, C, E, and K; and iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, copper, manganese, and some-times, molybdenum.This guideline, if followed, also guarantees that one will receive a vari-ety of nutrients, phytochemicals, and flavonoids. One-half cup of cooked or chopped raw vegetables or two cups of uncooked, leafy vegetables is considered one serving.

Fruit Group

All fruits are included in the fruit group. They provide vitamins A and C, potas-sium, magnesium, iron, and carbohydrates, including dietary fiber.
It is recommended that one eat a variety of fruit daily, following the food intake patterns for quantity, and go easy on the fruit juice. The calories in fruit juice add up quickly, especially if one is thirsty and drinks large amounts of juice. One serving is three-quarters cup of fruit juice; a half of a grapefruit; one whole raw medium apple, orange, peach, pear, or banana; a half cup of canned or cooked fruit; and a quarter cup of dried fruit.

Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese Group

Milk, yogurt, and cheese are excellent sources of carbohydrate (lactose); cal-cium, phosphorus, and magnesium; proteins; riboflavin, vitamins A, B12, and, if the milk is fortified, vitamin D. Unfortunately, all contain sodium, and whole milk and whole-milk products also contain saturated fats and cholesterol. Fat-free milk has had the fats removed.

It is recommended that two to three servings of these foods be included in one’s daily diet. The serving size is one 8-ounce glass of milk or the equivalent in terms of calcium content.

Children                                  2 servings

Adolescents                          3 servings

Adults                                     3 servings

 Pregnant or lactating women   3 servings

 Pregnant or lactating teens      4 servings

 The following dairy foods contain calcium equal to that found in one 8-ounce cup of milk. The best choices would be low fat.

 • 11⁄2ounces cheddar cheese

• 2 cups cottage cheese

• 13⁄4cups of ice cream

• 1 cup yogurt

Milk used in making cream sauces, gravies, or baked products fulfills part of the calcium requirement. A cheese sandwich would fulfill one of the serv-ing requirements, and a serving of ice cream could fulfill half of one of the serving requirements. Obviously, drinking milk is not the only way to fulfill the calcium requirement.

Some clients suffer from lactose intolerance and cannot digest milk or milk products. If they eat or drink foods containing untreated lactose, they experience abdominal cramps and diarrhea. This condition is caused by a defi-ciency of lactase. In such cases, milk that has been treated with lactase can be used, or commercial lactase can be added to the milk or taken in tablet form before drinking milk or eating dairy products.

Meat and Beans Group

All meats, poultry, fish, eggs, soybeans, dry beans and peas, lentils, nuts, and seeds are included in this group. These foods provide proteins, iron, copper, phosphorus, zinc, sodium, iodine, B vitamins, fats, and cholesterol.
Caution must be used so that the foods selected from this group are low in fat and cholesterol. Many meats contain large amounts of fats, and egg yolks and organ meats have very high cholesterol content.

Let the food intake patterns be the guide for the number of ounces one should eat daily. In general, 1 ounce of lean meat, poultry, or fish, 1 egg, 1 table-spoon of peanut butter, 1 ⁄4 cup of cooked dry beans, or 1 ⁄2 ounce of nuts or seeds can be considered as a 1 ounce-equivalent from the meat and beans group.

Fats

This group contains butter, margarine, cooking oils, mayonnaise and other salad dressings, sugar, syrup, honey, jam, jelly, and sodas. All of these foods have a low nutrient density, meaning they have few nutrients other than fats and carbo-hydrates and have a high calorie content. One’s limit for fat will be figured and listed as oils in accordance with the food intake patterns. It is recommended that the fat sources be from fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.

The Mediterranean diet has received attention because of the American Heart Association’s recommendation to increase monounsaturated fats in the diet. The following guidelines are recommended:

 ·        Eat the majority of food from plant sources, such as potatoes, grains and breads, beans, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

 ·        Eat minimally processed foods, with an emphasis on fresh, locally grown foods.

 ·        Replace other fats and oils with olive oil.

 ·        Keep total fat in a range of less than 20–35% of energy. Saturated fat should be no more than 7–8% of energy.

 ·        Eat low to moderate amounts of cheese and yogurt (low fat and fat-free preferable).

 ·        Eat low to moderate amounts of fish and poultry and from zero to four eggs per week (those used in cooking need to be counted).

 ·        Eat fruit for dessert; desserts that contain a significant amount of sugar and saturated fat should be eaten only a few times per week.

 ·        Eat red meat a few times per month, not to exceed 12–16 ounces per month.

 ·        Engage in regular exercise to promote fitness, a healthy weight, and a feeling of physical well-being.

 ·        Drink wine in moderation (wine is optional). Wine with meals—one to two glasses per day for men and one glass per day for women.


FOOD LABELING

As a result of the passage by Congress of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) in 1990, nutrition labeling regulations became mandatory in May 1994 for nearly all processed foods. The primary objective of the changes was to ensure that labels would be on most foods and would provide consistent nutrition infor-mation. The resulting food labels provide the consumer with more information on the nutrient contents of foods and how those nutrients affect health than former labels provided. Health claims allowed on labels are limited and set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Serving sizes are determined by the FDA and not by the individual food processor. Descriptive terms used for foods are standardized. For example, “low fat” means that each serving contains 3 grams of fat or less.

Current Label

The nutrition label has a formatted space called Nutrition Facts that includes required and optional information.

The items, with amounts per serving, that must be included on the food label are the following:

 • Total calories

• Calories from fat

• Total fat

• Saturated fat

• Trans fat

• Cholesterol

• Sodium

• Total carbohydrates

• Dietary fiber

• Sugars

• Protein

• Vitamin A

• Vitamin C

• Calcium

• Iron

The food processor can voluntarily include additional information on food products. If a health claim is made about the food or if the food is enriched or fortified with an optional nutrient, then nutrition information about that nutrient becomes required. The standardized serving size is based on amounts of the specific food commonly eaten, and it is given in both English and metric measurements.

Daily values on the label give the consumer the percentage per servingof each nutritional item listed, based on a daily diet of 2,000 calories. For exam-ple, total fat on  3 grams, which represents 5% of the amount of fat someone on a 2,000-calorie diet should have. The label also shows the maximum amount of a nutrient that should be eaten (for example, fat) orthe minimum requirement for specified nutrients (for example, carbohydrates) based on a daily diet of 2,000 calories and another based on 2,500 calories.

The items included here are the amounts of total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, and fiber. In addition, the label lists the calories per gram for fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.

Health Claims

Because diet has been implicated as a factor in heart disease, stroke, birth defects, and cancer, the following health claims linking a nutrient to a health-related condition are allowed on labels. They are intended to help consumers both choose foods that are the most healthful for them and avoid being deceived by false advertisements on the label. The allowed claims are for the relationship between the following:

• Calcium andosteoporosis

• Sodium andhypertension

• Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fruits, vegetables, and grains containing dietary fiber and coronary heart disease

• Diets low in fat and high in fruits and vegetables containing dietary fiber and the antioxidants, and vitamins A and C and cancer.

• Diets low in fat and high in fiber-containing grains, fruits, and vegetables and cancer

• Folic acid andneural tube defects

• Soy and reduced risk of cardiac heart disease

Two additional criteria must also be met:

1.    A food whose label makes a health claim must be a naturally good source (containing at least 10% of the daily value) of at least one of the following nutrients: protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, or fiber.

2.   Health claims cannot be made for a food if a standard servingcontains more than 20% of the daily value for total fat, saturatedfat, cholesterol, or sodium.

Terminology

The FDA has also standardized descriptors (terms used by manufacturers todescribe products) on food labels to help the consumer select the most appropriate and healthful foods. The following are examples:

• Low caloriemeans 40 calories or less per serving.

• Calorie freemeans less than 5 calories per serving. 

• Low fat means a food has no more than 3 grams of fat per serving or per 100 grams of the food.

• Fat free means a food contains less than 0.5 gram of fat per serving.

• Low saturated fat means 1 gram or less of saturated fat per serving.

• Low cholesterol means 20 mg or less of cholesterol per serving.

• Cholesterol free means less than 2 mg of cholesterol per serving.

• No added sugar means that no sugar or sweeteners of any kind have been added at any time during the preparation and packaging. When such a term is used, the package must also state that it is not low calorie or calorie reduced (unless it actually is).

• Low sodium means less than 140 mg of sodium per serving.

• Very low sodium means less than 35 mg of sodium per serving.

Obviously, the information on food labels is useful to all consumers and especially to those who must select foods for therapeutic diets. Health care professionals should become thoroughly knowledgeable about the labeling law. On request, many food manufacturers will provide the consumer with ad-ditional detailed information about their products.