Q & A: MyPyramid Contribution Calculations

How are you braking down the MyPyramid contribution per serving.  Are you using the MyPramid website?  I see with your cornbread that you are using a recipe that you made up.

- Kimberly from Ashtabula, Ohio

MyPyramid offers great tools to help you determine how many servings you are getting from each food group.  First, make a personalized MyPyramid plan.  It will tell you how many servings you need from each of the food groups. Then you need to figure out what counts as a serving in each group.

General rules for serving sizes for each food group

• 1 slice of bread, 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, or ½ cup of cooked rice, cooked pasta, or cooked cereal can be considered as 1 ounce equivalent from the grains group. 
• 1 cup of raw or cooked vegetables or vegetable juice, or 2 cups of raw leafy greens can be considered as 1 cup from the vegetable group.
• 1 cup of fruit or 100% fruit juice, or ½ cup of dried fruit can be considered as 1 cup from the fruit group. 
• 1 cup of milk or yogurt, 1 ½ ounces of natural cheese, or 2 ounces of processed cheese can be considered as 1 cup from the milk group.  
• 1 ounce of meat, poultry or fish, ¼ cup cooked dry beans, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, or ½ ounce of nuts or seeds can be considered as 1 ounce equivalent from the meat and beans group. 
• Be sure to check out the pages on Oils, Discretionary Calories, and Physical Activity too from the Inside the Pyramid print pages, especially the 'What counts as an ounce/cup/teaspoon/calorie?" pages.  These pages can be conveniently be printed out to help guide you in your choices until you get the hang of it. 

When I do the breakdown for my recipes, I consider every ingredient when I tell you what the MyPyramid contribution is.  I do this just to make you aware that prepared foods cannot always fit into just one food group.  For example, a cake contains ingredients from the grains group, but also potentially from the milk group, the fruit group, the meat and beans group, the oils group, and the discretionary calories group.  The contribution to these groups is often small, but it is good to keep in mind so you don't go over your calorie allowance.  If you don't have access to the recipe, or just want to do quick calculations, it is totally okay to just estimate.

Another way to estimate your intake from each of the food groups is to use the MyPyramid Planner tool.  Simply enter your personal information and then enter the foods you ate or plan to eat.  It will tell you how much your food choices contribute to each food group.  Give the tool a try and let me know what food groups you did well on today and which ones you need to work on.

Quiz Answer

The answers are...
1. Oatmeal: Grains (specifically whole grain)
2. Almonds: Meat and Beans AND Oils
3. Ice Cream: Milk AND Discretionary Calories*
4. Beer: Discretionary Calories**
5. Corn: Vegetables (specifically starchy vegetables)***
6. Avocado: Fruits and Oils
7. Peanut Butter: Meat and Beans AND Oils AND Discretionary Calories if it contains added sugar or fats.
8. Eggs: Meat and Beans
9. Black Beans: Meat and Beans OR Vegetables (specifically dry beans and peas)****
10. Bananas: Fruits

* You know that ice cream is full of fat.  Sadly this fat does not count as oils.  The fat in ice cream, when separated from the water and other components is solid a room temperature - think butter.  Oils are fats that are liquid at room temperature and contain essential fatty acids.  They are found mainly in plant foods and in fish.  Because these oils are necessary for health, there is an allowance for them in the food guide, separate from the discretionary calorie allowance.  Fats, such as those found in ice cream, count toward discretionary calories.  Fooducate wrote a great post yesterday explaining the ins and outs of oils so I'm not going to bother reinventing the wheel here, but check it out.

**I love that you guys tried to count beer as a grain.  It is not.  Although beer generally contains barley (a grain) and hops (a vegetable), these ingredients are in small enough quantities that counting them would be plain old furterating - a 12oz bottle of beer probably contains 1/100oz of barley - not worth counting.  But that doesn't mean that is isn't totally okay for occasional consumption, assuming you are healthy.  You just have to remember that it does count toward discretionary calories. 

***Corn and potatoes are both considered starchy vegetables, not grains, even though they often serve similar purposes to grains because of their high starch content. 

****Legumes such as black beans can count toward the Meat and Beans group or the Vegetables group - you can decide depending on what else you eat that day.  This is because although they are technically vegetables, cooked dry beans and peas are excellent sources of plant protein, and provide other nutrients such as iron and zinc like meats, poultry, and fish. Many people consider dry beans and peas as vegetarian alternatives for meat. However, they are also excellent sources of dietary fiber and nutrients such as folate that are found in vegetables.

And the winner is...
Dad, with a total of 10 correct answers - this is assuming I did a good job of correcting, but there is a reason I'm not a teacher.