How much of each food to eat

I get lots of questions regarding the food guide pyramid and how it relates to how they should be eating. The old food pyramid worked well but the new “My Pyramid” is especially confusing. If you go to this link you will see the old style of the pyramid: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/Fpyr/pmap.htm. Based on the most recent research I would make one change to this pyramid, flip and switch the two bottom layers so that you eat more fruits and veggies than grains (bread, cereal, rice and pasta).

The goal of the food pyramid in the first place is to make sure people eat a balanced cross section of healthy foods to insure good nutrition.

Some people have a hard time keeping track of portion sizes and find it easier to keep track of calories. If this is you, follow this profile for keeping your calories down and your nutrition up.

Overall, here is how your calories should layout:
1) 50 to 60% from carbohydrate; eating mostly complex carbs including whole grains, fruits and veggies
2) 20 to 30% from lean protein
3) 20 to 30% from fats, with no more than 10% from saturated fats.

So for the grains group if you do not eat the specified number of servings of, lets say bread, in a day that is not a problem. You can eat instead some whole grains foods such as cereal, and side dishes such as brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat (kasha and Soba noodles), cous-cous, or whole grain pasta.

Remember, staying healthy and improving your vitality has as much to do about a balanced eating plan as it is about maintaining a healthy weight.

I am going to give you and example of how many calories I should be eating based on my weight and wanting to lose one pound per week. I am 165 pounds.

165 X 12 + 1980 calories need per day to maintain my present weight
1980 – 500 = 1480 calories maximum in order to lose one pound per week
1480 X 0.25 = 370 calories allowed of protein and fat (based on 25% of each)
1480 X 0.50 = 740 calories allowed of carbohydrates (based on 50%)

There are 4 calories per gram of both protein and carbohydrates.
There are 9 calories per gram of fat

To determine how many grams allowed of each food I simple divide the calories allowed by the number of calories per gram.

So:
For protein I should be eating 370/4= 92.5 grams
For fats I should be eating 370/9= 41.1 grams
For carbs I should be eating 740/4= 185 grams


Regards,

Stuart