The good ole Food Pyramid....
(by Melissa McPeters, Personal Trainer & Nutrition Consultant)

The first is the one I grew up on, and the second is what the United States Department of Agriculture tells us today is the best way to eat.

You see it's changed since you were a kid, haven't you? Yes, instead of 6 building blocks from big to small, you see that it has vertical stripes instead. What do you think of this change? Is there anything missing? Does anything look wrong to you?

It says we need to eat more grains and less beans and meat. Hmmm. This seems to be connected to the United States' ongoing reliance on grains. Grain is fed to our cars, livestock and us! What do you think about this? Grains are great. They are rich in iron and vitamin B, but should it really be a mainstay in every meal?

Looking at the new pyramid, I see that we can limit our intake of fruits and increase our intake of milk and dairy. In fact, we're to eat more grains than even vegetables.

I never liked the original food pyramid, but this one is really making me crazy.

Before, we were told that we should even have sweets and fats in our diets, but to limit them. Ok, where are our sweets and fats in the new pyramid? Do you miss them? Isn't chocolate a food group to many?

Ok. Ok. So, the government has decided that our diets need to change. That is a fact. However, is this really the way? Is increasing our grains and decreasing our fruit going to help?

The bottom line is that the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture will regularly change what they deem as acceptable foods needed for our good health. It's nice to know they're looking out for us.

Truthfully, we should eat primarily fruits and vegetables with the rest of the food groups (chocolate included) as side dishes to our delicious vegetable main dishes and fruit salads.

You can view the new food pyramid here: http://mypyramid.gov/ (sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture)