Food Guide Pyramid

The Food Pyramid, developed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an excellent tool to help you make healthy food choices. The food pyramid can help you choose from a variety of foods so you get the nutrients you need, and the suggested serving sizes can help you control the amount of calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar or sodium in your diet.

* Use the Food Pyramid to guide your choices
* Choose low fat dairy and lean meat
* Limit saturated fat to 10% of your calories
* Base fat intake on calorie needs

Here is how the Food Pyramid Can Guide You:

So What's Your Caloric Limit?
You need to have enough calories every day in order for your body to have the nutrients it needs. How many calories that actually amounts to depends on a variety of factors including your:

* Age
* Sex
* Size
* Activity level
* Whether or not you are a pregnant or breastfeeding woman
* Whether you have a chronic illness

The National Academy of Sciences recommends the following calorie categories:

1,600 calories - Many sedentary women and some older adults

2,200 calories - Children, teenage girls, active women and many sedentary men.

Women who are pregnant may need around 500 calories more per day and an additional 300 calories for breast-feeding.

2,800 calories - Teenage boys, active men and very active women

It's possible that you may be between calorie categories on the chart. If you are then you will need to estimate servings. For example, some less active women may need only 2,000 calories to maintain a healthy weight. If you are at this calorie level, 8 servings from the grain group would be about right.