You can use the Pyramid as a basis for planning healthy meals. The biggest part of a pyramid is at the bottom and it gets smaller as you get to the top. Therefore, you should eat more servings of foods from the bottom of the Pyramid and fewer servings of foods from the top of the Pyramid each day.

Table of Contents for Menu Planning Introduction What is food? Why do we need it? Menu planning with the Food Guide Pyramid Menu planning tips Use what you've learned! Website Activities How much is a serving? Summary Menu Recipes Review questions Back to Nutrition Curriculum Lessons

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Menu Planning with the Food Guide Pyramid

Remember when everyone used the four food groups to plan a balanced diet? Now we use the Food Guide Pyramid to help people follow a balanced diet consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The Food Guide Pyramid is a tool to help us get all the nutrients we need for good health. You can use the Pyramid as a basis for planning healthy meals. The biggest part of a pyramid is at the bottom and it gets smaller as you get to the top. Therefore, you should eat more servings of foods from the bottom of the pyramid and fewer servings of foods from the top of the Pyramid each day.

The Pyramid is divided into six groups:

1. Breads and grains

2. Vegetables

3. Fruits

4. Milk and dairy products

5. Meats and meat alternates

6. Fats and sweets

Let's Review Each Group

Breads and grains are at the bottom of the pyramid. This is the largest section of the Pyramid - so these foods should make up the largest part of your daily diet. It is suggested that you should eat between six to 11 servings of bread and grain products each day, which means you should have one to three servings with each meal or snack.

This may sound like a lot of bread, but it is easy to get six to 11 servings during the day. A bread or grain serving is:

• One slice of bread
• Half of a bun or bagel
• One-half cup of cooked cereal
• Three-fourths cup of dry cereal
• One-half cup of cooked noodles or rice

If you were to eat a sandwich for lunch, you would be eating two servings from the bread and grain group.

Vegetables are the next largest group on the Food Guide Pyramid. You should eat three to five servings of vegetables each day. This may be harder to do, especially for kids who do not like many vegetables, but they provide lots of good nutrients, so try to eat some each day.

A typical serving size is one-half cup of cooked vegetable or one cup of raw vegetable. Purchasing seasonal vegetables (and fruits) from the produce market can be a way to stretch your food dollars.

Fruits are in a separate category from vegetables in the Food Guide Pyramid and they make up the third largest group. It is recommended that you eat between two and four servings of fruit each day to get all the important nutrients. A medium size piece of fresh fruit provides one serving. So does one-half cup of canned fruit or three-fourths cup of juice.

A person who drank some juice with breakfast, had an apple at lunch and one-half cup of peach slices with yogurt for a snack would meet all fruit requirements for the day.

Milk and dairy foods are the fourth group. Milk and dairy foods are important because they provide calcium, protein and other nutrients. Foods such as milk, ice cream, yogurt and cheese are included in this group.

Because some milk and dairy foods tend to be high in fat, you should try to eat the lower-fat varieties, such as 1% or skim milk, non-fat or low-fat yogurt and low-fat cheese. You should get two to three servings from this group each day. Most people don't eat enough foods from the dairy group, our most important source of calcium. If you're pregnant or nursing, be sure to get three or more servings of this group.

A serving from this group is one cup of milk or yogurt or one and one-half ounces of cheese.

Meats and meat alternates make up the fifth Food Guide Pyramid group. Foods in this category are not all meats! Beans, nuts, eggs and peanut butter are called meat alternates because they contain high amounts of protein, like meats do.

The serving sizes for meats and meat alternates vary:

• Three ounces of cooked meat, poultry or fish
• One egg
• Two tablespoons of peanut butter
• One-half cup of cooked dry beans

Eat two to three servings from this category each day. This is also a food group that contains fat, so you should try to find lower-fat choices, such as beans, lean meats, skinless chicken or fish (including water-packed tuna fish).

Fats, oils and sweets are at the top of the Food Guide Pyramid – the smallest part! There is no serving recommendation for this group except to eat these foods sparingly. Butter, margarine, sugar, salad dressing, mayonnaise and oil all fall into this group, but you should also remember that there is fat, oil and or sugar in most meats, dairy foods and processed or prepackaged foods (such as muffins and cookies). Pay attention to what kinds of foods you eat and keep track of the amount of these nutrients that you are consuming.

The main idea of the food guide pyramid is balance, variety and moderation. Eat a balanced diet made up of a variety of foods from all pyramid groups, but remember to eat in moderation – not too much of any one group. When planning meals for your family, keep the food guide pyramid in mind. Try to plan meals that include each of the food groups, but contain only moderate amounts of fats and sweets.

Menu Planning Tips

1. Read the Nutrition Facts labels on food products to determine how much of each nutrient is in the food. You can find out how many calories, fat grams, milligrams of sodium and amounts of other nutrients are in the food you are about to eat.

The label also tells you what type of ingredients the product is made of. Juice is a good example: if you were looking for orange juice and Juice A had orange juice as its first ingredient and Juice B had water and high fructose corn syrup as its first ingredients, you would know that Juice A had a lot more real fruit juice than Juice B. Juice B would be more of an orange drink than an orange juice. Because real juice has more vitamins and minerals, this would be the better choice. By law, Juice B could not be labeled orange juice. Use the labels to help you make the most nutritious selections.

2. Find the Sell by … and Best by … dates on food products, especially meats, dairy and bread products. This tells you when to purchase them so that you buy the freshest foods available. Fresher foods keep longer in the refrigerator and pantry.

3. Read the front of the food label to find out the weight of the food. This tells you how much food you get in the package. For example, if you were looking for noodles and saw two different packages, you could look at the weight to find out which package contained more noodles.

4. Plan your meals for the week (or two weeks if possible), make a shopping list and buy only what you need. This will save both time and money. You will know what you need at the grocery store, so you won't buy foods you don't need. You will also know what to prepare and won't have to figure out what's for dinner every night.

Take advantage of specials or coupons on foods you know you will be needing. Prepare some foods early and freeze or refrigerate them until time to eat.

5. Plan meals with foods that vary in shape, color, texture, temperature and flavor. This produces a plate that is pleasing to both the eye and the palate.

For example, if you serve spaghetti and meat sauce, a cool crisp salad is a good complement, along with some French bread. Or, vegetable soup served with a cheese sandwich and an apple would be another good combination of texture, temperature and flavor.

6. To avoid waste, serve foods that most of your family enjoy. When introducing new foods or less popular items, serve them with more acceptable choices and encourage your family to taste some of each food offered.

7. When trying to provide the suggested number of servings of each group, remember that combination foods can contribute servings of several different groups.

For example, a serving of spaghetti with meat sauce will provide about one bread and grain serving, one meat serving and one vegetable serving. A couple of slices of pizza may equal two bread and grain servings, one to two milk and dairy servings, one to two meat servings and one-half to three-fourths cup of vegetables. (Remember: this food also gives you some extra fat!)

Even some desserts, such as fruit cobbler can contribute bread, fruit or milk and dairy servings.

8. Store dry goods, such as flour, cornmeal, rice, grits and oatmeal, in air-tight packages in the refrigerator to prolong shelf life. Keeping these products cool decreases the chance for weevils or other pests to infest them.