The old food pyramid stacks four food groups on top of one another. The largest food group is at the base and this is bread, cereal, rice, and pasta. Next, up you have fruit and vegetables. The second from the top is dairy, meat, fish, eggs, nuts, and beans and right at the top, with the smallest space, is fats and oils. You can use this food pyramid to tell at a glance how much of each type of food you should be eating.

With the new food pyramid, there are downwards rainbow colored stripes symbolizing each food group. The new food pyramid also makes it clear how many cups or ounces of each food you should eat per day because not everybody is sure how big a "serving" should be exactly.

How Important is to follow the Food Pyramid?

Doctors agree that eating a balanced diet is good for your health. Combining grains, fruit, vegetables, dairy produce, and fats is nourishing and gives your body everything it needs. If you are a vegan or vegetarian, you can still use the new food pyramid but you will need to substitute some of the items for alternatives, such as replacing meat with beans or pulses.

All Foods are allowed but Not Equal

No foods are banned from the new food pyramid but there are some foods, which should be eaten in moderation. If fried chicken is your favorite dish, it will not do you any harm to eat it. You will probably not want to eat it every day but once in a while is fine. Chicken is healthy and lean and fried chicken recipes contain some oil but it is fine to consume some oil each day. In fact, the body needs fats as well as other nutrients.

You might like to have a fruit and grain rich breakfast and a vegetable rich lunch to balance out your indulgent fried chicken recipe in the evening. Alternatively, you might want to serve it with corn on the cob, beans, or a green salad but there is no reason that you cannot enjoy your favorite foods and be healthy at the same time.

Banning all fried food or sugars from your diet is going to make you feel deprived. Eating everything in moderation is good for you and is also enjoyable. Unless your doctor has given you a special dietary plan for health reasons, the saying "a little of what you fancy does you good" is very true and the body is sophisticated enough to extract the nutrients out of what you eat to use and send the waste on its way.

The main thing to know about the new food pyramid is that it encourages you to eat a balanced diet. "Balanced" does not mean a fried chicken in one hand and a pound of French fries in the other but it does mean that eating a wide range of foods is good for you.

So, if you were unsure about what the new food pyramid means, you can rest assured that your favorite foods are definitely still on the menu!