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Maintaining a healthy diet by using food guidelines.

A healthy diet is one of the essential factors in maintaining health, which can prevent

chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. A healthy diet can be defined as

diet which contains high quantities of fibre, rich in fruit and vegetable as well as whole

grain, low cholesterol and trans-fat and moderate fats. It is important that the consumer

controls food intake as well as doing regular physical activity and eating more than one type

of food. There are several guides which may help to maintain a healthy diet such as My

pyramid and Exchange list. The dietary guide lines in life style recommendations have been

designed to improve the health status and reduce diseases. The dietary guide for Americans

comprises 23 recommendations classified into 9 categories. It concerns approaches to

provide the body with more nutrients but less calories, promoting the balance between

exercise and food intake, reducing the food composition that are associated with chronic

disease and ensuring food safety to the consumer. (Samolin&Grosvenor, 2010)

The aim of this report is to provide information about the composition of a healthy diet by

using food guides and an exchange list. It briefly explains food guidelines that could help to

maintain a healthy diet. Firstly, dietary reference intakes as a tool and its benefits in diet

planning will be explained followed by the food guide pyramid, food labelling and its

purpose in diet planning, the importance of the food exchange list in diet planning and

assisting diabetics, and finally a conclusion of the main findings.

There are several tools that could help to plan a healthy diet such as dietary reference

intake, food labels and food guide pyramids.

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1. Dietary reference intake (DRIs):

The Dietary reference intake (DRIs) developed in 1994 by the institute of Medicine’s food

and nutrition board, it was designed to help healthy people to plan and assess their diet

(Institute of Medicine, 2001).

Recommendations for energy, protein, micronutrient and macronutrients are provided, for

six nutrient groups:

• B vitamins and choline

• Vitamin A and K

• Macronutrient and Energy

• Water and electrolytes

• Calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, vitamin D, and fluoride.

• Antioxidants

Furthermore, food components that affect health such as phytochemicals are listed as well

as different life- stage groups (Samolin&Grosvenor, 2010).

2. Food guide pyramids:

Food guide pyramids provide a step to healthier food choice comprising food group systems

based on nutrients with specific amounts of energy. They were developed by the United

States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the early twentieth century. The purpose of this

pyramid is to recommend healthy food choice and regular daily physical activity. Several

concepts have been developed namely activity, variety, proportionality and moderation

(Samolin & Grosvenor, 2010).

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The activity means that the public should take regular physical activity to maintain their

health. The daily recommended activity

is 30 minutes of moderate exercise

which should be regular. It has the

distinct benefit of improving health

status which also could prevent chronic

disease as well as enhancing physical

fitness. It has been estimated that up to

60 minutes of exercise could help weight

management and reduce the percentage

of weight gain in unhealthy people.

(Samolin&Grosvenor, 2010)

Moderation:

Moderation involves reducing the amount of food intake from the bottom to the top of the

pyramid. The food that we consume should be low in saturated fat, transfat-cholesterol and

reduced in each food group. (USDA, 2005)

Variety:

Variety concerns more than one type of food for consumption, symbolized by 6 colours in

the pyramid illustrating 5 groups of food and oil. One type of food does not have all

nutrients that the body requires and therefore it is important to vary food in the diet.

(USDA, 2005)

Figure (1): shows the amount of each group of food that should be consumed.

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Proportionality:

It considers that there is some types of food should be consumed more than others. The

width of the colour describes the food

type and quantity that we should

consume it whether in high or low

amount.

Finding an appropriate pyramid plan

can be implemented by visiting my

pyramid website on

www.MyPyramid.gov where the

appropriate pyramid plan based on the

age, gender and activity level can be

found. Figure 2 shows pyramid form

after the required data has been entered.

It consists of five main food groups which are milk, vegetable, grains, fruits and meat.

However, there are some recommendations about the amount of fat that should be in the

diet component. The amount of food that found in MyPyramid is expressed in cups, ounces

and teaspoons (USDA, 2005).

Figure (2): describes the key message and the concepts of the food guide pyramid.

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3. Food labelling:

Food labelling is one of the tools that could help the healthy people to plan their diet in

order to meet food guideline recommendations such as

MyPyramid, DRIs and Dietary Guideline. It is designed

to aid consumers to choose a healthy diet by supplying

information about the food component and

composition which would fit consumer into the overall

diet. Furthermore, reading the food label can help

consumer to choose food that high in fibre, less in salt

and saturated fat as well as providing the people who

have chronic disease to avoid some types of nutrient

that could affect on their health status

(Samolin&Grosvenor, 2010).

In USA, FDA regulates all packaged food except meat products which is regulated by the

USDA. As can be seen from Figure 3 that the nutritional facts from macaroni label shows the

information that would help the consumer whether to choose this type of product or not.

The first part of the label explains nutritional fact of the product which provides information

about serving size. It is based on standard list using metric measure. Daily value gives

percentage of the nutrient in food as percentage of the recommendation for 2000 calorie

(DeWilde, 2010)

4. Exchange list:

Figure (3): shows the food label of a macaroni product

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Exchange list is other type of food guidelines which has some recommendations that could

help in promoting a healthy diet. It can be defined as a group of food that is helpful in

planning diet to obtain specific amount of energy. It was developed first time by the

American Dietetic Association to help the people who have diabetes; then, it has been used

for planning weight loss diet. The exchange list concerns dividing the food into three main

groups depends on their macronutrient; Carbohydrate group, meat and group and fat group

(Samolin&Grosvenor, 2010).

Kitamura (2009) point out that the current situation of treating diabetes by using diet

therapy can be achieved by using food exchange list. It has effectively contributed in

treating diabetes, the principles of diet therapy is to (1) make the amount of total energy

intake equal to the physical activity, (2) the proportion of the main nutrient should be

consumed as 60% carbohydrate, 15-20% protein and 20-25% fat. (3) The body should meet

its requirement from Vitamins and minerals. (4) An appropriate amount of fibre should be

consumed daily (Kitamura, 2009).

There are other recommendations and tips which could help to maintain a healthy diet;

food standard agency has developed various tips which should be taken into account when

consuming food and that could help in planning a healthy diet. It can be summarized in 7

points:

1- The meal should be based on starched food because it has lot source of energy as

well as containing calcium, fibre, iron and B vitamins.

2- The fruit and vegetable should be consumed in high amount.

3- The fish should be consumed highly, because it is excellent source of protein and

contains high amount of mineral and vitamins.

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4- Reduce consuming food contain sugar and saturated fat. Food with high saturated

fat could cause heart disease as well as consuming food contain high sugar could

lead to obesity.

5- Eating less salt no more than 6g per day. Consuming high amount of salty food could

lead to high blood pressure.

6- It is important to do physical activity and try to have a healthy weight. Being

overweight can causes affect the health status and lead to heart disease, diabetes

and high blood pressure.

7- Drinking high amount of water to avoid the body from dehydration. The

recommended amount of water is 6 to 8 cups about 1.2 litters.

8- Eating breakfast every day give the body required energy and help to control the

weight (Food Standard Agency, 2010).

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Conclusion:

It can be concluded that the healthy diet involves consuming proper amount of nutrients

from different types of food, it should be high in fibre, vegetable and fruits low in saturated

fat, salt and sugar. There are several tools that could help to maintain a healthy diet have

been developed by different health organisations. These tools are designed to prevent

people from chronic diseases and premature death. DRIs can help consumers to assess their

diet and make judgement about excessive intake. Food pyramids based on important

concepts moderation, activity, variety and proportionality which has beneficial effect in

planning a healthy diet. Food labelling is an important tool which provides consumer by the

food composition that would help them to plan their diet. Exchange list has significant

benefits in planning the diet for the people who have diabetes. The diet can be maintained

by using these tools. If the consumer used some of this tool in planning their diet, it would

prevent them from chronic diseases.

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References:

DeWilde, L., Food Labelling Laws and Information for the USA [online image] available from http://www.jjlp.us/liam/health_elp/who_is_controlling_labels.htm [accessed on 12/11/2010]

Food Standard Agency, (n.d.) Eat well, be well. Food Standard agency. URL <http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/> accessed on 12/11/2010.

Institute of medicine, 2001. Dietary reference intake. Institute of medicine http://iom.edu/Reports/2000/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-Applications-in-Dietary-Assessment.aspx

Kitamura, S., 2009.Diet therapy and food exchange lists for diabetic patients. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, (24), Pp. S233-S240.

Smolin, L., and Grosvenor, M., 2010. Nutrition science and application.2nded.USA: Wiley.

USDA, 2005. My pyramid. United State Department of Agriculture. Url< http://www.mypyramid.gov/tips_resources/index.html> accessed on 10/11/2010.