Make Healthy Meals

One of the challenges of healthy eating is making the right food choices. There are resources that can help you to determine how many calories you should be consuming each day, as well as the amount from each of the food groups.

There is a very simple resource called My Pyramid Plan available at MyPyramid.gov. It is very easy to use. You put in your age, gender and activity level to get your recommendations. We’ll take a look at what it recommended for me.

I’m turning 34 later this month, so that’s the age I put in. Female, not exercising regularly unless you count chasing after two very active children, ages 4 years and 16 months.

The results sound pretty reasonable. It recommends 1800 calories a day. Six ounces of grains, 2.5 cups of vegetables, 1.5 cups of fruit, 3 cups of milk and 5 ounces of meat and beans a day.

Clicking on each food group gives you more information. For example, the grains section suggests eating at least 3 ounces of whole grain bread, cereal, crackers, rice or pasta daily and to make sure to look for whole grain products.

Scrolling down on the My Pyramid Plan page, you get still more advice on each some of the categories, and links to get still more information. It is suggested, for example, to make sure that you vary the kinds of vegetables you eat by color: green, orange, beans and peas, starchy and so forth.

You may have noticed nothing has yet been said about oils or sweets. The recommendation for me was to limit myself to 5 teaspoons of oil a day. It also said to limit extra fats and sugars to 195 calories per day.

Some of these are pretty easy to do. I enjoy making fruit smoothies and fruit salads, so if I keep appropriate supplies on hand, the fruit requirements are pretty easy. The smoothies allow me to add some vegetable in as well. If you haven’t tried it, carrots add a very subtle flavor to smoothies. Just add one, maybe too, along with all the fruit.

I have a decided fondness for cucumbers, and if I remember to keep them chopped up, they get eaten quite regularly. We sometimes buy the big packs of sugar snap peas at Costco, as the entire family enjoys snacking on them (nothing like having kids beg for something healthy!). I use carrots regularly in stir frying.

Grains are actually a weak point for me. I don’t eat sandwiches that often, although I do always make sure to buy whole wheat. I prefer brown rice to white; if you haven’t tried it, there’s a wonderful nutty taste to it.

Like many Americans, I’m sure I overdo it on the meats. I do prefer the leaner cuts, however, and tuna is a regular purchase.

My greatest weakness? Chocolate, of course! I can easily snack on that any time of the day. Other candies can be a problem too, but none so much a chocolate. My main tactic is to buy the smaller bars available in the bags, so that I can more easily eat a smaller amount. It takes some self control to keep from going though too many smaller pieces, but it helps.

I hope this tool proves to be useful to you as well in planning your healthier diet. It can be very interesting to see what is recommended.

Share your thoughts on this post, recipe ideas or anything else relevant.