MyPlate guide can help ensure balanced meals

Nutrition messages can be confusing. When you try to balance eating all of your favorite healthy foods while getting enough carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamin A, calcium, even riboflavin, not to mention all of the other essential vitamins and minerals your body needs to run at its best, having an eating guide can not only be helpful, but almost necessary.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate guide to healthy eating is just that: A helpful eating guide to ensure you appropriately balance your favorite foods with the nutrition you need to be healthy and perform at your best.

Odds are, the MyPlate logo is not foreign to you. You’ve likely read about MyPlate in a magazine or have seen a MyPlate poster hanging in your school cafeteria. The reason this simple logo is so popular is because it is the nationally-recognized way to eat to ensure you receive all of the nutrition you need during the day.

Here’s how it works:

The MyPlate guide was designed to represent a 10-inch dinner plate — a typical-sized plate you would serve a meal on. The recommended instructions are to build your plate with the following 3 tips in mind every time you eat:

1. Fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables
2. Fill the other half with grains and proteins
3.  Choose one serving of dairy to include at each meal, for a total of 3 servings each day

You may be wondering: Why is it important to eat each of the Five Food Groups and in these specific proportions? The answer comes down to nutrition science.

Each of the Five Food Groups represents foods that have similar nutrients. If you relied on only one food group, your body would only receive the nutrients that are specific to that group. Fortunately, each of the food groups provides different and unique nutrients that, when combined, provide the nutrients your body wants and needs to operate at its best.

When you remove one of the food groups it becomes very challenging to eat 100 percent of your nutrient needs. Good nutrition is eating to fulfill your nutrient needs, which is key for optimal performance.

Children, teenagers, athletes, and adults of all ages can benefit from MyPlate’s guide for good nutrition.

Once you have practiced determining which foods fit into the Five Food Groups and eating them in the correct proportions, here are some other healthy tips to consider trying:

• Choose a variety of different colored fruits and vegetables to fill half of your plate; different colors typically indicate different nutrients.
• Choose a variety of protein foods, such as chicken and turkey, lean beef, eggs, tofu, beans, nuts and seeds.
• Try to choose whole grains, at least half of the time. Remember, brown breads are not necessarily whole grain; read the ingredient list on the nutrition facts label and look for words such as whole grain, oat, etc. towards the top of the list.
• Low-fat or fat-free milk, cheese and yogurt are the wisest choices in the dairy food group. Even low-fat and fat-free choices provide essential nutrients your body needs. A cup of milk (chocolate or white) provides nine essential nutrients, including calcium.

Athletes can train harder and perform better with proper nutrition. Visit this site to read more about milk as an exercise recovery beverage and learn how to eat for peak athletic performance.