The Food Pyramid Made Easy

What your diet will be made of will heavily depend on the foods you tend to gravitate to. Like any diet, this one will take some time to adapt to it, but it will be well worth your efforts.

The food pyramid shows you which amount of each food group you should eat or are allowed in a day. You then need to sit with pen and paper and work out the daily menu for yourself to see what will be the best choices to make with each meal for the day. Planning also ensures that you always have the right ingredients in the house for the meals you plan to prepare.

When it comes to eating grains, like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, you can have 3 ounces per day. That does not mean you can eat 3 ounces of each of those options, it means 3 ounces of ONE of the things on the list, per day.

100% vegetable juice counts as a vegetable which is great because freshly made vegetable juices are extremely healthy. Your veggies can be raw or cooked but I feel if you can handle it raw, have it raw. You will want to eat more dark green and colorful vegetables as compared to starchy vegetables (e.g. potatoes and yams). You are allowed to have 3-5 servings of vegetables per day.

A great form of healthy dessert is fruit. You can eat fruit fresh, frozen, dried, and even canned, but having fresh fruit is the best way to go! You may enjoy 2-4 fruits. Fruit like berries, raspberries and blueberries are easier to find frozen and that's not a problem, they taste delicious frozen in a smoothie.

Dairy is another section you'll find on the pyramid. You are allowed to have 2-4 servings of milk, yogurt or cheese, remember to count even the milk that you drink in your coffee!

All foods such as red meat, poultry, dry beans, fish or peas, nuts, eggs and seeds fall into the protein group. You may indulge in 2-4 portions of protein per day; attempt to choose the lean and less fatty cuts of meat.

Some of the most popular oils are olive oil, corn oil, and canola oil. There are also foods that are very high in oils like nuts, olives, some fish and avocados. The most popular fatty fish is Salmon and it's great to use for sashimi or sushi. You might also find it interesting to know that no plant oils contain any cholesterol! Fats and sweets should be consumed sparingly.