Food pyramid

FOOD PYRAMID :

The  food  guide  pyramid  was  introduced  in  1992  by USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) as a general plan of what to eat each day. The food guide pyramid is a valuable tool for planning a health promoting diet.

By incorporating the principle of balance, variety and moderation, an individual can still eat their favourite foods while following the food guide pyramid.

Balance:

It means choosing food from different food groups.

Variety:

This means including different foods within each food group. For eg. consuming a variety of fruits.

Moderation:

This means keeping serving sizes reasonable. This involves self control.

The food guide pyramid provides recommendation for the number of daily servings that should be consumed from each of the food groups.

The diagram Fig. 1.3, clearly represents that cereals should form the major bulk of the diet followed by fruits and vegetables, pulses, milk and meat products and sugars and oil. The portion size of foods for adolescents (13-18 years) is given below.

Food Groups : Portion Size g(gram) Number of Portions for Adolescents Girls Boys

Cereals and millets :  30 g 10 14

Pulses :  30 g 2 2

Milk :  100 ml 5 5

Roots and tubers :  100 g 1 2

Green leafy :  100 g 1 1

Vegetables

Other vegetables :  100 g 1 1

Fruits :  100 g 1 1

Sugar :  5 g 6 7

Fats and oils :  5 g 5 5

(For non-vegetarians substitute one pulse portion with one portion (50 gm) of egg / meat / chicken / fish.)

Source :

Dietary guidelines for Indians - A manual (1998), National Institute of Nutrition, ICMR, Hyderabad - 500 007.