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Rather than recommending a certain number of servings a day, as the old pyramid did, the new guidelines suggest specific amounts, in cups or ounces, which makes it easier to figure out just how much you're supposed to be eating.
The previous pyramid recommended that the bulk of your daily intake come from the grain group. It said that a moderate daily level of about 2000 calories should include a hefty nine servings from this group. A serving consists of one slice of bread or a half-cup of cooked pasta. Times nine, that's a lotta pasta. The new guidelines suggest cutting that back to six ounces — that comes to six slices of bread or three cups of pasta. Take that, Dr. Atkins! Whole grains are strongly promoted over refined grains like white flour and white rice.
Quantities recommended for the other food groups — vegetables, fruits, milk, and meat & beans — are pretty similar in the old and the new pyramids. One big difference, though, is that low-fat or fat-free dairy products are the calcium providers of choice in the new chart. The previous pyramid wasn't so specific.
The little triangle at the top of the old pyramid represented fats, oils and sweets, and the directions were to "Use Sparingly." Of course, having it sit on top of all the other food groups made this group of forbidden foods seem like the summit, the apex, the icing on the cake — and isn't that everyone's favorite part?
You can barely find the "oils" section in the new pyramid. It's a little sliver of yellow, wedged between the red "fruits" section and the blue "milk" section. The message? Fats and oils should be limited.
Sugary foods are relegated to the "discretionary calories" category, which doesn't even appear on the pyramid itself. The My Pyramid website equates your caloric intake to a budget. If your calorie budget is 2000 calories a day, you should spend at least 1,735 of these calories for essential nutrients — the wide bands on the pyramid. That leaves you with 265 discretionary calories to spend on "luxury" versions of the essential foods — like higher fat meat or sweetened cereal. Or you can go ahead and splurge on sweets, sauces, or beverages. Let's see — that's about one can of Cheerwine and a couple of cookies, or one frozen margarita.
The 21st century pyramid encompasses 12 intake levels, ranging from 1000 to 3200 calories a day, so that both couch potatoes and marathon runners can gauge how much they should be eating. On the website, you can enter your age, sex, and activity level (don't lie), and you'll get your very own "My Pyramid Plan" to use as a guideline. A complaint about this new Food Guidance System is that it is distributed almost entirely over the Internet, yet many of the people who need it the most may not have computer access. Then again, people with computer access will probably spend more time sitting in front of the screen playing with the interactive site than climbing those stairsteps to good nutrition and an active lifestyle.
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Haw River Wine Tasting @ Carolina Beer Temple.
- Wed., April 24, 5-7 p.m.
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Haw River Wine Tasting @ Carolina Beer Temple.
- Wed., April 24, 5-7 p.m.
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LIVE MUSIC FRIDAYS: TRACE CASANOVA @ Elizabeth Parlour Room at Hooligans FC
- Fri., April 26, 8-11 p.m.
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Charlotte Grilled Cheese Festival @ SouthEnd Station.
- Sat., April 27, 1-4 p.m.
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