New Food Pyramid Basic Concepts.

Are you scratching your head over what to eat rather than how much to eat ?

By Jenny Mathers. Fitness & Personal Training Cert. IV

The new food pyramid offers the general public balance, variety and raises awareness of their general food choices. Questions of how much food to eat to lose weight is often lost in the quest for the best types of foods to eat to lose weight - I should know.

My Pyramid So HOW does the new food pyramid help us avoid the temptations of our "50% more for $1" culture ? We all love the thought of getting more for our money - but when it comes to food this can add up to a lot of extra calories.

When the USDA's Agricultural Secretary introduced the new food pyramid (MyPyramid) in 2005 they tried to get across several concepts.

http://www.usda.gov/

Two of these concepts included moderation and proportionality.

The World Of Supersize Me

The overall concepts that this food pyramid wants to get across are personalization, physical activity, moderation, proportionality, variety and gradual improvement. You can see from the take-away coffee cups above the wide variety of sizes available - its incredible really. With the gradual increase in size and weight of food items ranging from muffins to a cup of coffee, it's easy to see why the everyday person finds it hard to eat a "balanced diet".

When the MyPyramid Tracker is used, the concepts of moderation and proportionality become clearer. Clients who want to lose weight become mindful of how much food is enough.

Watch the video - watch what happens when Dr. Wansink selects 1 cup of brocolli - the planner will show him that he has eaten his fill of vegetables for the day.

It not only told him that he needed to eat more vegetables, but depending on how much brocolli he chose - it told him that 1 cup filled his vegetable quota. Knowing how much is enough is important because it will help you to cut calories and lose weight.

Using this tool can be extremely helpful in losing weight.

The problem is that the message of proportionality and moderation is sometimes lost because so many times there is the perception that what to eat is more important than how much is eaten. In reality they are as equally important.

While the MyPyramid site does offer information placed in other areas of the site, it seems (and this is my opinion only) separated from the actual tracker. Many people who want to lose weight, want to know exactly what they should be eating - in fact that might be exactly why you're reading this now.

I love MyPyramid - it's free, it's easy and it educates, but there's just one thing I don't like it about it. It doesn't give the user a starting point. For the stock-exchange worker to the cleaner who has had a gutfull (Australianism for being sick of something) of food marketing to the extent that they can no longer tell what is really healthy anyway.

A good example of this is the perception that "carbs are bad for me". And by carbs, they mean starchy foods like bread, potatoes and pasta - not realizing that the salad they are consuming is mostly made up of carbs as well. The problem is, on a general basis, that if you eat wholegrain bread, wholegrain pasta and potatoes in the right quantities, these are perfectly healthy and reasonable inclusions into a weight loss diet.

I think that people need and want a set meal plan to be used as a starting point and want to be told what to eat.

If you use the MyPyramid tracker along with a calorie controlled meal plan, you'll be able to effectively keep a track of what you're eating. Use of internet based feedback features such as progress charts have been shown to help users lose weight.

Because some clients are so confused about what diet is best for them, a set meal plan leads you by the hand and tells you exactly what to eat.

You can use the meal and exercise plan to give you the confidence that you will be losing weight. Having a set meal plan by itself isn't enough though, it doesn't help you make your own decisions about what is good for you. Using the set meal plan as a starting point is more helpful in the long term.

When you start out eating according to the meal plan and track your eating patterns with the new food pyramid meal planner it gives you extra motivation and shows you exactly how you're meeting your calorie and food group quota's. A couple of days down the track you can personalize your food choices and vary the foods you eat within the food groups and it shows you what effect this has.

Using the new food pyramid tracker will educate you about the concepts of moderation and proportionality in your eating patterns. When you use an example meal plan as a starting point, you'll know that you will be on track to reaching your weight loss goal.

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