Meal Planning Guides
Remember learning about "the four food groups" in our younger years? We were taught about the food pyramid and how to use it to construct a healthy diet for ourselves. While it was a wonderful idea, the details of the pyramid have changed a bit over the years thanks to our improved knowledge of foods and the nutrients our body needs to lead the healthiest lifestyle. A modern version of the food pyramid still exists today and can be found at http://www.mypyramid.gov. However, many experts in the field of nutrition, including our own University of Michigan Integrative Medicine program and the Department of Nutrition at Harvard's School of Public Health disagree with some of the details. Flaws such as recommendations for grains from refined starch, three servings of low-fat milk per day (which adds calories and is not the only or best source of calcium), and lumping all proteins together (and thus ignoring the "packaging" for lean meats versus more fatty meats) make this diet guide out-of-date. Patients should be encouraged to build their diet from evidence-based recommendations such as the Healing Foods Pyramid and the Healthy Eating. Pyramid described below.
Click on the links below to learn more:
Care must be taken to consider pros and cons for each of these diet guides. In his book "Mindless Eating, Why We Eat More Than We Think" (18), Brian Wansink encourages readers to simply be mindful of what they are eating to promote healthy consumption of foods rather than using specific "diets." He provides helpful hints at the dinner table:
Pre-plate food.
Only serve fruits and vegetables "family-style" to avoid second and third helpings of less healthy options.
Use smaller plates.
Avoid too many foods at mealtime as increased variety leads to increased eating.
Eat fruit for dessert.
Leave something on your plate.
Manage your pace and eat slowly (eat along with the slower eater at the table or to slow paced music).
There is no doubt that we are bombarded in the media with food and food choices, both those known to be poor choices and those advertised as "healthy." In fact, in her book "What to Eat," professor and nutritionist Marion Nestle notes that there are approximately 320,000 food products available for purchase in the U.S. (19). It is no wonder patients get confused. We should encourage our patients to keep a simple take-home message in mind. Nestle summarizes it simply: "Consume less calories, move more, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and eat less junk food." Encourage our patients to eat a well-balanced diet high in vegetables, fruits and whole grains complemented with healthy fats and well-chosen proteins. Once patients are comfortable with this key idea, they can begin using the tools above such as the University of Michigan Integrative Medicine Healing Foods Pyramid and Harvard's School of Public Health Healthy Living Pyramid to create a healthy diet that will lead to a lifetime of good health!