What’s up with the New Pyramid?

By Margie Geiser

Recently the USDA released the MyPyramid food guide to the public. Thanks to the input from the American Dietetic Association, the familiar pyramid logo was kept, but how the foods fit on that pyramid have been adjusted. To see the actual pyramid, go to www.mypyramid.gov/index.html.

I have spent quite a bit of time on the website, getting to know what makes this pyramid different than the previous one, and learning the features available on the website. This new guide is very interactive; gone is the one-size fits all concept. Now you can enter your age, sex and activity and get a calorie level that may closely fit your personal needs. My purpose in writing this article, today, is to help readers take advantage of what this new guide has to offer, and highlight some of the features that make it an improvement on the previous pyramid.

The new pyramid was developed to help people incorporate the 2005 Dietary Guidelines. The pyramid is an educational guide that will help people learn what changes they need to make to their eating and activity choices, why these changes are important to health, and gives tips on how to make these changes.

The Dietary Guidelines focus primarily on three areas:

Increase intake of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and other essential nutrients,
Decrease intake of saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol, and increase intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to decrease the risk of chronic disease,
Balance calorie intake with personal needs in order to prevent weight gain or achieve a healthy weight.

There are four main themes that the new pyramid follows, which includes variety, proportionality, moderation, and activity. Probably the newest addition is the activity.

Let’s take a look

For anyone who visits the internet, this can be a very handy tool. That is also one of its greatest limitations, however: For people not connected to the internet, they will less likely benefit from the interactive tools.

When you visit the home page, www.mypyramid.gov, you are asked to enter your age, sex and activity level. There are three levels of activity, which includes either less than 30 minutes, 30-60 minutes or over 60 minutes per day of moderate or vigorous activity. Examples of moderate activity would include walking briskly (at least 3.5mph) or gardening. When you enter these criteria, you are then taken to a page that suggests your individual calorie goals. You can print up these goals. You can also print up an individualized worksheet to help you track your daily intake and activity. This can be a very useful tool for anyone who wishes to improve their food intake or activity habits. This could be a handy tool for healthcare practitioners, also.

The Categories

There are the usual categories we are familiar with from the old pyramid, but some new ones, too. These include; fruit, vegetable, grains, milk, meat and beans, as well as oils, discretionary calories, and activity categories. Let’s take a look at aspects of each in more detail.

Grains

Now grains are broken into refined grains and whole grains. Servings are based on ounce equivalents, which are equal to 1 slice of bread, ˝ cup of cooked rice, pasta or cooked cereal, or 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal. On the site, there are more examples of foods serving amounts that count as 1 serving. On the site, there is a page that will tell us how many servings each age category needs, along with the minimum needs for health. This is the case for each category. In each category, there is a page that outlines the health benefits of each food group, and a page that provides tips on how to add these foods to their diet. This is an excellent addition to the pyramid, which I will return to.

Vegetables

When you visit the vegetable group, the new feature is that now they are broken up into five separate sub-groups; dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, dry beans and peas, starchy vegetables and other vegetables. As with the grains, amounts needed are based on age categories. The subgroups give recommendations on how many to eat weekly, in order to provide more variety to the diet, supplying more nutrients than just eating the same, few, vegetables every day. Serving sizes are a bit different in the new pyramid. It is now one cup of raw or cooked or juice, or two cups of raw leafy greens.

Fruits

The serving sizes are also different in the fruit group. Now the general recommendation is one cup of fruit, in any form, or juice, or half cup of dried fruit. On the site are specific recommendations based on the particular food, though. I am glad to see that although they say one cup of juice is equal to one cup of fruit, they at least recommend less juice and more whole fruit. Since you would have to juice multiple fruits to get one cup of juice, this cup would provide more calories than the fruit, itself.

Milk

The key to the milk group is that these are foods that can provide calcium to the diet. In general, 1 cup of milk or yogurt, 1 ˝ ounces of natural cheese, or 2 ounces of processed cheese can be considered as 1 cup from the milk group. Although cheese and milk-based desserts are included, they do also come with recommendations to choose non-fat or low-fat choices. In this category, there is a section on making wise choices, which include what to choose if you do not eat/drink dairy products. The primary focus is to choose the lower-fat options.

Meat and Beans

Beans are also included in the vegetable group, which can provide a non-fat, high nutrient option for protein sources. All foods made from meat, poultry, fish, dry beans or peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds are considered part of this group. Serving sizes are now different for this group, which fits better with other exchange systems. One ounce of meat, poultry or fish, Ľ cup cooked dry beans, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, or ˝ ounce of nuts or seeds can be considered as 1 ounce equivalent from the meat and beans group. Not only are nutrients from this category discussed, but also the health implications. Emphasis is on choosing lean foods from this category, and there is a discussion on foods that increase blood cholesterol. A discussion on the advantages of nuts and fish and seeds is also found in this section. Tips are included on what to look for on food labels, there is a section on food safety, and there is also a separate page for vegetarian choices.

Oils

This is a new category. Previously oils were lumped into a category called ‘others’. Emphasis in this category is to help people understand the difference between oils and solid fats and learn how oils help health. There is a section on what each person’s allowance is, and a section on what counts as a serving. It’s important to pay attention to serving sizes, as these are highly concentrated sources of calories. Although these can be choices very good for health, they still are large sources of extra calories.

Discretionary Calories

Going on the theory that each of us has an allowance of so many calories, once we have met our basic needs for all the foods that provide the important nutrients for health, we then may have some extra calories in the bank to ‘play’ with. So, if a person chose the lowest calorie choices in the necessary food groups, they could then treat themselves to ‘extras’, which are the discretionary calories. A person can use these discretionary calories in any number of ways.

Examples include:

Eat more foods from any food group in the food guide.
Eat higher calorie forms of foods—those that contain solid fats or added sugars. Examples are whole milk, cheese, sausage, biscuits, sweetened cereal, and sweetened yogurt.
Add fats or sweeteners to foods. Examples are sauces, salad dressings, sugar, syrup, and butter.
Eat or drink items that are mostly fats, caloric sweeteners, and/or alcohol, such as candy, soda, wine, and beer.

These calories are listed according to calorie levels on a chart. Solid fats and added sugars are included in this section and described on separate pages. There are also pages on how to count the solid fats and discretionary calories.

Physical Activity

Physical activity is described, why it is important is outlined, and how much is needed for children and adults is explained. A chart is provided to show how many calories are burnt for a 154 pound male. Again the most useful section, though, are the tips on how to add activity to our day.

MyPyramid Tracker

This is a new online feature that anyone can access for free. You do have to register to use it, but it will then remember the information you provide, allowing you to use it on an ongoing basis. So, for example, if you wish to track your food intake for a long period of time, you are able to do on here. Same thing with your exercise/activity.

First choice is to assess your food intake. After you log in or register, you are then asked for information, such as age, gender, height and weight. Optional is your email address. Then you can go to either the food intake or physical activity section.

If you have ever used any type of meal tracking program, you will quickly get used to how this one works. You’ll type in a particular food, then choose from a list. You will then be asked to enter the amount of that food and then add to your daily intake. You can also enter foods into a section called ‘frequently used foods’, so you don’t have to continually add foods. You can click on this section and all your added foods will be there for you to choose from. This can shorten the amount of time it takes to enter your foods for the day. After you have entered all the foods for that sitting, you can then go to the section, save and analyze. On this page, you have multiple choices of what you can look at or how you can view your progress. One nice feature is that you can go on and enter what you ate in the morning, then save and go off-line, then come back to enter what you eat mid-day, and so forth. Then you can check your progress over a selected period of time, not just for one day, if you wish.

Finally, you can also track your exercise. When you go onto the physical activity page, you have two choices; either the Condensed Option or the Standard Option. If you choose the standard option, you must account for every minute of the day, which is a total of 1440 minutes. However, when I proceeded to enter all my activity for the Standard Option, I found that ‘sleep’ was not an option. I do tend to do that each night and found that a large limitation of the feature. I’m sure this will be fixed eventually, though.

Regardless of which Option you choose, you then again have the ability to analyze how well you’re doing, either for the day, week, month, etc. Then you can compare how your intake and activity compared, also.

Overall, I think this new MyPyramid is a great teaching tool. Currently, there appears to be a lot of confusion around it, perhaps because it has such new features. Contacting a health professional who has spent some time on the new pyramid could quickly help resolve that confusion and actually help people figure out how to make it work extremely well for their personal use. I’d suggest that everyone spend some time on the site, play with it, and see how to make it work for you.

About the Author:

Marjorie Geiser is a registered dietitian, certified personal trainer and life coach. Marjorie has been the owner of a successful small business, MEG Fitness, since 1996, and now helps other nutrition professionals start up their own private practice. To learn more about the services Margie offers, go to her website at www.megfit.com or email her at margie@megfit.com.