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USDA Food Pyramid

An active 25-year-old woman and a sedentary 75-year-old man have very different nutritional and caloric needs. But until recently, the US government’s food pyramid (show on the right) that was introduced in 1992, has given them—and all the varieties of ages and lifestyles in between—the same dietary advice.

Unveiled in 2005, My Pyramid reflects revisions to the federal dietary guidelines and replaces that one-size-fits-all approach with a dozen different versions, customized to your age, gender and activity level.

In addition to being customizable, My Pyramid also flips the familiar food bands sideways. A rainbow of vertical color bands symbolizes variety among the five food groups and oils. The varying widths represent the updated dietary guidelines’ recommendations of the relative proportions you should consume from each food group.

The entry point to to a sophisticated collection of tools is www.MyPyramid.gov which you can use to match your eating and exercise habits to the latest nutritional knowledge. In the boxes on the right side of the screen, fill in your age, select your gender and pick your typical daily level physical activity. That will take you to one of the 12 pyramid versions that best matches your needs. You can then print out your customized pyramid and use it as a dietary guide.

A collection of tips from the USDA to help you put your customized My Pyramid plan into action are in the Health & Nutrition Letter (from Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy).

The Harvard School of Public Health's version is called The Healthy Eating Pyramid and stresses exercise, weight control, eating healthy fats, eating whole grain foods, choosing healthier sources of protein and recommends taking a multivitamin supplement.