Food Pyramid Explained

If one asks the question about a healthy diet nowadays, the uncertainty is great. Which rules lead to a healthy diet are partly contradictory. Even the food pyramid, which was considered a reliable guideline for a long time, now exists in different variants. With so much uncertainty, many consumers prefer to stick with familiar eating habits, which may not necessarily be conducive to good health, but what does healthy mean when it comes to food and drink?

Healthy food pyramid

Anyone who deals with the topic of healthy eating will sooner or later come across the food pyramid. It represents graphically illustrated, in which quantity ratio to each other different foods should be consumed to eat healthy. The base of the pyramid shows the preferred foods, and the top lists the foods that should be consumed in smaller quantities. The food pyramid is especially suitable for children to teach them about healthy eating.

Is the food pyramid upside down?

Due to new scientific findings, the food pyramid has been modified several times in recent years. This is also a good thing, because research does not stand still and new findings in the field of healthy nutrition are communicated to consumers in a timely manner. But for some time there seems to be no more right agreement among the scientists. Numerous variants show the healthy food pyramid on the Internet in different forms.

Some safe rules for healthy nutrition, such as eating low-fat foods and eating lots of carbohydrates, seem to be wavering. Some high-fat foods are suddenly making their way to the base of the food pyramid, while carbohydrate-containing products such as pasta, rice and potatoes are moving toward the top of the food pyramid because of their high glycemic index. Who is supposed to make sense of this?

If only it were that simple!

Humans tend to present things as simply as possible – even more so when they are meant to be explained to children. Thus, according to previous recommendations to consume plenty of carbohydrates, moderate protein and little fat, the fats were basically considered bad and the carbohydrates positive. But it is not that simple. As we know today, fats, carbohydrates and proteins have very different qualities, which are to be evaluated differently in terms of their health value. So it’s not just about quantity, quality also plays a major role. This is exactly what can be explained to children using the food pyramid.