The Pocket Idiot's Guide to the New Food Pyramids

In my experience, most people are aware of the government's My Pyramid (mypyramid.gov) outlining guidelines for healthy eating, but most can't seem to figure out how to incorporate it's advice their daily lives (or get overwhelmed by everything it has to offer!). "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to the New Food Pyramids" presents a pared down plan for making My Pyramid's resources work for you, no matter what your goal, age or stage of life. It cuts to the chase on how to use the Pyramid eating plans to lose, maintain, or gain weight, as well as how to modify it if your pregnant or breastfeeding. Because it also includes information on the Kids My Pyramid, the book is appropriate for both children and adults. The book's simple descriptions of the Pyramid's resources demystifies a guide that many feel is complicated to negotiate (or unavailable to them if they don't have a PC at home), and is so much easier to use than the government's web site. It also provides tons of easy tips for including healthy foods in the diet without sacrificing all your "favorites." As a nutritionist who counsels both adults and children, I'm thrilled to be able to refer my clients to a resource that will make their transition to healthy eating easier and less confusing.

The old food pyramid might not make a whole lot of sense given recent advances in nutritional understanding, but at least it was self-contained. You could glance over it and figure it out, no problem; not so with the new one. That's where "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to the New Food Pyramids," by Elizabeth M. Ward, M.S., R.D., is meant to come in. It's a relatively small, non-threatening guide to deciphering that new picture. The idea that we should need an entire book to explain it sort of goes against the whole concept of creating a simple image that conveys a basic idea of nutrition, but on the other hand, it's probably unrealistic to expect such a thing to be possible in the first place. These days it takes a book to explain what we know about nutrition and the human body. There's a surprising amount of clear, simple detail in this book on calorie-counting, food groups, serving sizes, and so on. It explains how to customize the pyramid plan to your age, gender, activity level, and weight needs, and it also explains how you can get the most out of your food nutritionally. Overall I think this is a very handy book. I'm a little wary of calorie-counting as a means to weight loss. I also think there was some tension between the desire to keep the book limited to a simple explanation of the food pyramid vs. providing a detailed breakdown of nutritional needs that might have erred on the limited side. However, the book provides the lowdown on nutrition and how it relates to the wide array of foods out there in a largely detailed, easy-to-understand manner, and that certainly makes it worth reading.

The 'Pocket Idiot's Guide to the New Food Pyramids' by Elizabeth Ward is a life saver to help consumers understand the latest advice from the government. Her insightful tips, advice and guidance are easy to understand, practical and fun. She turns the dietary guidelines into workable solutions that we can easily incorporate into our every day lives. Eating right and getting regular exercise can be really difficult but this guide makes it so simple and easy to follow Uncle Sam's advice.