My Food Pyramid.gov

Remembering the old food pyramid we all learned in school? You know the one who tells us to eat more 'grains and carbohydrates' than anything else? Last January the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a new symbol and interactive food guidance system called "MyPyramid". This image, which replaces the Food Guide Pyramid introduced in 1992, is part of an overall system that emphasizes the need for a more individualized approach to improving diet and lifestyle. The system incorporates the recommendations of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which shows how good dietary habits can promote health and reduce the risk of major chronic diseases for people two years and more.

True health professionals and fitness are not big fans of "one size fits all" nutrition programs. In fact, the reasons most diets fail is that they try to fit you (a person) in a program designed for everyone. Honestly, we never believe that any dietary recommendations (the old food pyramid) is valid for everyone in the U.S.?

This strong aversion to fit the "one fits all dietary guidelines is exactly why we love the new MyPyramid so. Take for example this quote copied directly from the MyPyramid website: "One size does not fit all. MyPyramid Plan can help you choose the foods and amounts that are right for you. For a quick estimate of what and how much you should eat, enter your age, gender and activity level in the MyPyramid Plan box. For a detailed analysis of your diet and physical activity level, click on MyPyramid Tracker. (Source: mypyramid.gov)

What we like about the new guidelines:

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has done an excellent job of updating the food pyramid and adding details that help us. For example:

1) MyPyramid make a distinction between "grains" and "whole grain", which is critical for life and health fitness.

2) Instead of telling us to "Eat fruits and vegetables" (which may prompt some to drink fruit juice and expect to be healthy), MyPyramid encourages eating a wide variety of fruits and fresh vegetables discouraging fruit juices (which are often lacking in nutrition and full of empty calories).

3) MyPyramid suggests that we consume low-fat dairy products, rather than just dairy products. A little milk and most cheeses are full of saturated fats and can be harmful. The new recommendations take this into account and prompt us to look for healthy dairy choices.

4) Like it does with the dairy category, MyPyramid tells us to look for choices low-fat protein like fish and nuts. The new guidelines even teach us about healthy oils against the harmful fats.

5) Finally, and most importantly, MyPyramid actually discusses exercise. Finally! The guidelines demonstrate the difference between moderate or vigorous activity, and provide general recommendations for the average American.

What we do is not liked by the New Guidelines:

1) The site MyPyramid (mypyramid.gov) has a section called "My Pyramid Plan 'that estimates BMR (basal metabolic rate). In other words, this site estimates how many calories we should consume each day. The problem is they (the USDA) use only our age, sex and level of physical activity to determine our caloric goal. No mention is made of the differences in height or the amount of lean muscle mass, we on our part. Lean muscle mass is an important factor in determining the caloric needs, so we were disappointed to see that this is not included in the calculations. generalizations like this do not take into account individual differences, they are almost sure to be inaccurate for many of us.

2) The heading 'Physical activity' of MyPyramid fails miserably in that it does not provide for the education year, we need to.