The new food pyramid, called MyPyramid is a great guide towards healthy eating habits. It gives you an overview how much of certain kinds of food you should eat in your daily diet. The new pyramid was issued in 2005.

What the new MyPyramid tells us:

Well, first of all, there are in fact several slightly different pyramids depending on your weight, gender and exercise habits. This is a great improvement in comparison to the "one size fits all" approach of the old food pyramid.

The pyramid prescribes how many servings you should eat for each food group, given your circumstances (weight, gender, exercise). We could go so far as to say that it is a diet plan in it’s own right...

Next to the absolute amount of food that you should consume to live healthy and keep your weight, the MyPyramid also tells us about the ratio of the different food types.
We discover that vegetables and fruits should be the base for your diet. Followed by grains (especially whole grains, of course...) and milk products. Meat and beans top it off. A small portion of your calories should come from good fat like vegetable oil and fish.

So, what was wrong with the old food pyramid...?

So, o.k. we already know that the new MyPyramid was issued in 2005 and includes some very important new insights coming from the latest nutrition research.

Now, we think that the most interesting change that happened between 1992 (old food pyramid) and 2005 is the change in the food ratios.
The old pyramid followed the high carb, low protein and low fat mindset. The carbs were mainly based on grains and bread. The new one stresses the importance of fruit and vegetables over grains and speaks for a higher protein content.

So we can clearly see a shift from the traditional high carb "bread and grain" diet towards a tendency to embrace a low G.I. diet! After all, the high carb lifestyle most likely caused the global epedemic of obesity...

How the pyramid can help you...

...use it to choose your diet program!
You can use the food pyramid to consider which weight loss diet is right:

We have seen that the new diet recommendation shifts away from bad carbs more towards a low G.I. diet. It emphasizes good carbs. That is one big plus for the low G.I. diets plans like the South Beach Diet! In our mind that gives the low G.I. diet movement a very important stamp of approval.

Also, we recommend that you follow diet plans that strongly go against the food pyramid only for a limited time. That’s why we say that the extreme low carb diets like the Atkins Diet Plan and the fad diets are only recommendable for a short time.

...use it as a guide after your diet!
We recommend that you get your personalized MyPyramid profile after you have achieved your weight loss goal. It is very easy and is a great guide in everyday life.
Combine it with a low G.I. style of living!

So, if you have achieved your weight loss goal with a diet plan, it is a good idea to jump to the official site of the MyPyramid and get ideas for a healthy way of living! (Link opens new window)

...use it to educate your kids about healthy eating!
There is some great material for kids now. (Link opens new window)
Use it to educate your family about healthy eating. The new food pyramid is simpler and much easier to understand than the old one.