USDA Food Pyramid 5-A-Day for Better Health Fruits & Vegetables Screener Fat Screener Valuable Resource Links

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.

5-A-Day for Better Health

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. 5-A-Day for Better Health is a national program and partnership that seeks to increase the number of daily servings of fruits and vegetables Americans eat to five or more. It provides easy ways to add more fruits and vegetables into your daily eating patterns.

For more information on the "5-a-Day" program, visit the US Department of Health & Human Services, or the National Cancer Insitute.

Screeners

Do you get your five-a-day? Experts recommend that we all eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. This free Fruits & Vegetables screener will let you know how you're doing.

Do you eat more fat than the average American? Are you doing better than that? Complete the free Fat Screener to learn how you measure up.

Valuable Resource Links

The Nutrition Source website, maintained by the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, explores the latest science about healthy eating for adults. Well organized, easy to follow, and contains a wealth of information.

Health & Nutrition Letter (from Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy) provides consumers with "honest, reliable, scientifically authoritative health and nutrition advice that not only can be trusted but can have a direct and often immediate effect on their health". Three and a half years of past health and nutrition letters, containing articles, advice and expert Q&As, can be found on their website. Over half of these can be viewed online at no cost.

FoodNavigator-USA.com is a daily online news service available as a free-access website and that also provides daily and weekly newsletters to subscribers. It provides up to date News Headlines in the areas of Science & Nutrition, Financial & Industry, and Legislation, as well as Product & Supplier News.

Nutrition.gov serves as a gateway to reliable information on nutrition, healthy eating, physical activity, and food safety for consumers, educators and health professionals.

The American Dietetic Association is the nation's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.

USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center is a leader in food and human nutrition information dissemination and provides credible, accurate, and practical resources for nutrition and health professionals, educators, government personnel and consumers.

USDA Nutrient Database search engine interface. Proximates, minerals, vitamins, lipids and amino acids are among the catagories of nutrients listed for each food.

FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition details how to understand and use the nutrition facts label on products.

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