Healthy Eating Guidelines

Healthy Eating Guidelines and The Food Pyramid

In 2005 the US Government issued a new food “pyramid” suggesting healthy eating guidelines the nation’s citizens should use to be healthy. The government saw that two-thirds of the citizens of this wonderful country were obese. Or maybe somebody just told them. I’m not sure they really pay that much attention.

At any rate, the new pyramid did make a few healthy changes but I’m not sure anyone is paying any attention to them either. You know how it goes: the parents ignore the children and the children ignore the parents, unless someone steps on someone else’s toes or makes too much noise.

The old recommendations were a bit, how should I say, FATTENING! Sorry, I’m yelling again.

Then they looked around and said “holy obesity, Batman!” We need to help these people! (Those are always scary words when coming from the guv’mint.)

The old rules did not take into consideration calorie restrictions. The new and improved pyramid can be catered to fit your calorie needs.

Old recommendation: 6-11 servings a day of grain, bread, rice, pasta etc. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?

New recommendation: 6 ounces of grain a day. MUCH BETTER!

Old recommendation: 2-3 servings of meats, poultry, beans etc. What’s considered a serving? A 12 ounce steak? Half a chicken? Hmmm.

New recommendation: 5 ½ ounce serving a day for a 2000 calorie/day diet. That’s a little more like it.

A small change in dairy from 2-3 cups a day took it to 3 cups for a 2000 calorie/day diet.

The new healthy eating guideline (for a 2000 calorie per day diet) is 2 ½ cups of veggies and 2 cups of fruit.

If you have different calorie requirements you may check them out on the government healthy eating guidelines (opens a new window). On this page you can fill in your age, sex, weight and height and activity level and your own personal recommendations will come up.

I have adjusted my own recommendations to lower my meat serving and increase my vegetable servings. If I eat what they recommend I would gain weight. Everybody has their own metabolism so these are only very general guidelines.

Use your own judgment to determine what portion sizes are good for you.

Chew your food well and eat only until satisfied. If you feel tired after eating then you are eating too much or not eating the right things or not chewing your food long enough.

Digestion exhausts a lot of energy. If you chew properly the saliva in your mouth starts the digestive process and speeds proper digestion promoting better absorption of the nutrients in the food consumed. That's assuming that there IS nutrition in the food being eaten!

Here are MY personal healthy eating guidelines, not per serving but a general idea of what is healthy.