Food Pyramid to Improve Your Diet

The food pyramid is a drawn up plan of exactly what the human body needs nutritionally. The pyramid is considered to be a guide to help us determine what we should eat everyday. It is not necessary that you should have a set menu of food that you to eat everyday. All that is required is that you plan your meals to get the correct amount of nutrients into your system every day.

The food pyramid until now showed you a path which keeps you fit and healthy. In 2005, it changed forever when a more up-to-date version took its place. Now, you will find that the three-dimensional food chart is used more than the older two-dimensional food chart. To show you what added benefits regular exercise will have on you, a figure running up a flight of stairs on the side of the food pyramid has been added.

Earlier, if you looked at the food pyramid, you would have noticed that the horizontal lines spanning the pyramid with the food that we eat most often at the bottom. On the other hand, the food that we should eat in least amounts could be found at the top. This is the pyramid that we all know about.

However, the new food pyramid is completely different. Apart from the fact that it has become three dimensional, it also has a figure climbing up the side of it. This new food guide has also successfully eliminated the horizontal lines. Instead, we can now see lines starting from the top of the pyramid and radiating downward.

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Each of the sections in the new food guide are as big, or small, as the earlier food guide sections. With this new food guide, you know that you need to eat some food types more than others. Also, there are few foods which you should only eat in moderation.

You will notice that the new food pyramid is colour-coded. So, you'll get different coloured stripes that represent grains, vegetables, fruits, amounts of fats and oils to be consumed daily, milk and dairy products that you're allowed to eat, quantities of meats, fish, and beans you should eat in a day.

With six colored stripes denoting the amount of food you should take, this is much better than the older food chart. It tells you more about better eating habits and a healthy lifestyle.

It is often said that "You are what you eat", "An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure" and "Healthy food pyramid is wealth." All these expressions are as old as the food pyramid itself. In fact, many of us do not listen to what the food pyramid has to say, and hence we lead ourselves to different diseases.

Of course, there is no food guide that can make you stay fit 100%. Moreover, a poor diet can lead to significant energy loss and reduction in IQ and illness. A proper diet food chart is very important if you are planning to shed some kilos from your body.