A Balanced Diet (and USDA Plate vs. Pyramids)

USDA 'My Plate'

Balanced Diet
I used the USDA ‘My Plate’ to base my ‘balanced diet’ off of. As you can see, vegetables and grains should be about the same portion; there should be slightly more vegetables though. Next, fruits and protein should be of the same portion as well but smaller than veggies/grain, while dairy is on the side in the shape of a cup, which probably implies milk or yogurt. Milk is generally thought of as a bone-strengthening source of calcium; however, you may want to rethink that...I will post about milk sometime in the future. Anyhow, all the food group sizes are relative to each other, so no set amount is given. You'll just have to look at your average meal and evaluate whether or not your portions look like this.

For a more detailed plan on the amount of servings you should be eating of each food group per day, visit http://www.choosemyplate.gov/supertracker-tools/daily-food-plans.html or https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/default.aspx. There, you can enter your basic health information and they'll give you a personalized “Daily Food Plan.”

Comparison of Plate vs. Pyramids
The Plate is very visual, easy to understand, and relatable to your everyday meals unlike the previous Food Guide Pyramids, in my opinion. You can see the relative sizes of each food group so people can easily relate to it visually rather than having to measure out exact serving sizes. Also, what kind of meal looks like a neatly stacked up pyramid? That adds to the “hard to relate to” aspect of the pyramids. Last thing: notice that the Food Plate doesn’t even mention fats and sweets, which shows that those foods shouldn’t be in your diet at all and kind of makes you forget about it a bit too. Don’t forget about the exercise though (it’s not included in the Food Plate).

USDA Food Pyramid #2 aka. 'MyPyramid'

USDA Food Pyramid #1