Basic Food Groups

The essence of a healthy diet can be summed up with three words: variety, moderation and balance. To make it easy to follow these simple principles, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has devised the Food Guide Pyramid which divides food into six basic groups and recommends a number of daily servings for each. These servings are of moderate size, and if a person selects a variety of foods from each group, there should be no problem in a achieving a balanced diet.

7 Dietary Guidelines:

1. Eat a variety of foods.

2. Balance the food you eat with physical activity to maintain or improve weight.

3. Choose a diet with plenty of grains, vegetables and fruits.

4. Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol.

5. Eat a diet moderate in sugars.

6. Eat a diet moderate in salt.

7. If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation.