Different Guidelines
The United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Guide Pyramid is one well-known and reliable resource for people who want to follow standards based on important nutrition facts. The pyramid, which can be viewed at the USDA’s Web site, USDA.gov, outlines how many servings of each of four food groups should be eaten by an average person in order to have a balanced diet. The Food Guide Pyramid takes into account vitamins and minerals in different types of food and makes suggestions based on those facts.
For more specific information and facts about vitamins and minerals, the USDA also has a chart of Recommended Dietary Allowances. This chart takes into account the nutrition needs of people based on age and sex with a list of each essential vitamin and mineral and a corresponding amount that a person of a given age and sex should take in every day.
The Recommended Dietary Allowances chart also includes a more recently developed standard called the Dietary Reference Intakes, which have not yet been established for all nutrients but which reflect efforts of the United States and Canada to revise the Recommended Dietary Allowances.
People who are particularly concerned about nutrition facts and weight can use references like the Body Mass Index, a mathematical formula that takes into account both a person’s height and weight. A person’s Body Mass Index can be obtained by dividing his or her weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. Risk of disease and classification as underweight, normal, overweight, or obese can be estimated based on a Body Mass Index chart.
It is important to keep in mind that while basic nutrition facts hold true in all cases, specific guidelines may be different for people of different ages, sexes, activity levels, and other personal characteristics. If you think that you might fall outside of the nutrition guidelines that are recommended for the average person, it is never a bad idea to search for more information about your specific circumstances or ask a health care or nutrition professional.
Common Themes
Although different frames of reference for nutrition facts offer different specific pieces of information, certain themes can be found throughout all legitimate nutrition standards and guidelines. One that should not be a surprise is balance: Although everyone has natural tendencies towards certain types of foods more than others, a good nutrition-conscious diet is not possible without a variety of grains, fruits, and vegetables, just to name a few.
Along with balance is the concept of moderation. While certain foods are undeniably less nutrition-friendly than others, people who really enjoy and crave those foods should not feel that they must be cut out of their diets entirely just because of the facts about the healthfulness or lack thereof. The key to eating less nutritious foods is simply not eating too many of them at once.
Avoiding Nutrition Myths
If you want to learn more about nutritionand design a healthy diet around them, information is everywhere. Every day some aspect of nutrition is in the news, and it might be difficult to separate legitimate information from information that may be out of context or exaggerated. Trustworthy nutritioninformation can always be obtained from the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for the laws about food product labeling. Registered dietitians and nutritionists are also a good source of reliable knowledge. The best way to separate nutrition myths from facts, however, may be to simply learn the basic fundamental concepts of nutrition such as balance, moderation, and which vitamins and minerals are essential in what quantities, and keep those facts in mind when making sustenance selections.
By Kristin Cleveland