Food Guide Pyramids: American Versus Australian By David Kraft At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

When we were growing up, most of us learned about the food guide pyramid, and chances are your children are learning about it in school today, and if you plan to send them to a weight loss camp this summer, they'll learn more about it there. The pyramid is a great tool that we can all use to ensure that we're eating a healthy diet and can use to help plan meals for our children, and we all know that a healthy diet is key to losing weight.

Like anything in life that concerns our personal health and the health of our children, though, it is never a bad idea to get a second opinion. In Australia, they have a food guide pyramid that resembles ours, but also has some differences. For the sake of this article, the Aussie Food Guide Pyramid will be our "second opinion."

The US pyramid consists of six parts: Grains, Veggies, Fruits, Milk, Oils, Meats, & Beans. If you visit the USDA site and view their copy of the pyramid that we're all familiar with, you can click on each section to get advice about how much of each you should eat every day as part of a healthy diet.

The Australians made their pyramid a bit simpler. It only has three categories that are based on how much the foods in each category should be eaten. In the "eat most" category are things like fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and grains. The "eat moderately" group consists of lean meats, eggs, and other low-fat dairy products. In the "eat in small amounts" group, you fid things like oils, low-fat spreads, margarine, sugar, and butter.

A quick search online should give you plenty of results that will point you to their pyramid, where you can learn more.

Both pyramids have their advantages and disadvantages, which is why it can be beneficial to look at both of them. They both provide guidance for eating a healthy diet, there's no doubt about that. The US pyramid has the advantage of being very specific, while the Aussie pyramid is advantageous because of its simplicity. However, the American pyramid could be seen as too complicated while the Australian pyramid may be seen as too simplistic since it doesn't really offer much advice about portion sizes. It does give advice about relative portion sizes, but no specifics are given.

So, it really comes down to what kind of guidance you need more. If you need specific information about portions, the US pyramid is the way to go. If you just need a general guide to keep in mind, the Australian pyramid is preferable because it is so simple.

The bottom line is that you can't go wrong by following either one, so long as you actually follow it. At weight loss camps for kids, they teach children how to plan and eat healthily and the food they serve fits in to both. Back at home, they can be great guides for planning meals.

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