Nutrition and Diet

Complete physical fitness is not just about exercise, but also includes good nutrition and a sensible diet.You maintain a healthy body weight and body fat percentage through sound diet and exercise to ensure the best health, fitness, and physical performance. All of these things are relevant to maintaining military readiness and achieving peak performance.

The Food Pyramid

Knowing the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Guidelines and understanding the Food Pyramid to determine your daily requirements of carbohydrates, proteins, and fat will help you make healthy food choices and improve your physical fitness. A new version of the pyramid debuted in 2005 and shows the types of foods and the proportions that most healthy people should eat. In addition, USDA has an interactive website to help you track your diet. Visit

www.MyPyramid.gov, where you can personalize your diet by age, gender, and general fitness level.

A healthy diet has the right kinds of foods in the right amounts. Look at the Food Pyramid in Figure 2.2. The person walking up the steps on the left represents the need for daily physical activity and different individuals’ different nutrition needs. The different widths of the food group bands indicate the need for proportion—how much you should choose from each group. The six color bands symbolize the food you need daily from each group for good health.

• Orange (grains): USDA recommends you eat at least three ounces of whole-grain bread, cereal, crackers, rice, or pasta every day. Half your grains should be whole. To make sure you’re eating whole grains, look for the word “whole”before the grain name on the list of ingredients.

• Green (vegetables): You should vary vegetable servings, eating more dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, and dried beans and peas.

• Red (fruits): Eat a variety of fresh, frozen, canned, or dried fruit, but go easy on fruit juices, which may contain empty calories in the form of added sugars and sweeteners.

• Yellow (oils and fats): Most of your fats should come from fish, nuts, and vegetable oils. Limit your consumption of solid fats like butter, stick margarine, shortening, and lard. Instead, when possible, consume foods with omega fish oils, which help maintain your cardiovascular health.

• Blue (milk, an important source of calcium): Choose low-fat or fat-free milk. If you don’t or can’t drink milk, choose lactose-free products or other sources of calcium, such as hard cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss, or parmesan), cottage cheese, and low-fat or fat-free yogurt (including frozen yogurt).

• Purple (meat, beans, and eggs): You may notice that this band, like the yellow band for oils, is thinner than the others. This visually reminds you to “Go lean on protein.”Choose low-fat or lean meats and poultry that are baked, broiled, or grilled

Nutrition and Diet

rather than fried. Vary your choices, including more fish, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds. If meat typically covers most of your plate, take another look at the Food Pyramid.