Episode 6: Let's Chat about YOUR Nutrition
MyPlate
Topic 1: MyPlate
• We eat food for a variety of reasons: pleasure, emotional support, entertainment, social opportunities, but ultimately the goal of eating is to provide energy and nutrients to support and maintain your body’s functions.
o What you put into your body matters. We know things like smoking is bad for us and that there are certain genetic factors that can contribute to greater risk for disease, but preventive cardiologist Dr. Stephen Kopecky tells us that nutrition is now the number one cause of early death and early disease in our country and the world. o So making better choices in what we eat can contribute to lowered risk of disease.
• The United States Department of Agriculture has developed tools over the years to provide us with some guidance on how to eat. You may remember the Food Guide Pyramid, which was this dark colored pyramid with sections and the largest section at the bottom had pictures of grains like pasta, bread, rice and cereal and the smallest section at the top had your fats, oils and sweets. This version was updated to MyPyramid, which had colorful strips coming down vertically from the pyramid and the size of the color strip was representative of the portion each food group should make up in your day. Now, we have what is called MyPlate, which is more applicable, given we eat our food on a plate, so this is an easier way to visualize how much of each food group should we have on our plate or at our meals.
• There are 5 different food groups: Fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins and dairy. In the two pyramids, they also included a section or group for fats, oils, and sweets, however, it was ruled that we typically incorporate these items into our food while we are cooking and that we didn’t need them at every meal, so they didn’t actually need to represent their own group. Topic 2: Fruits and Vegetables
• Fruits are represented by the color red on MyPlate and the daily recommendations are dependent on your sex and age. For example, 14-18-year-old boys need 2-2 ½ cups of fruit a day while 60 year old women only need 1 1/2 – 2 cups per day. A cup of fruit is the equivalent of a large orange, 22 seedless grapes, 1 large banana, or a small apple. Eating fruit has been associated with lowered risk for certain diseases because it provides nutrients that are needed to main health. Most fruits are naturally low in fat, sodium and calories and don’t contain cholesterol. Fruits have many essential nutrients that may people don’t get enough of like potassium, fiber, vitamin C and folate. These nutrients are important because:
o Potassium may help maintain blood pressure o Fiber helps to reduce blood cholesterol levels and is important for digestion o Vitamin C is important for the growth and repair of all body tissues and helps to heal cuts and wounds and keeps your teeth and gums healthy o Folate is especially important for the prevention of birth defects
• It’s recommended to get your daily fruit intake in the form of whole fruits verses fruit juices, because fruit juice doesn’t contain the fiber that is found in the flesh and peels of whole fruits. If you are consuming a fruit juice, it’s important to look for the label that says No Sugar Added.
• Vegetables are represented by the green section on MyPlate are organized into 5 subgroups based on their nutrients: dark green; red and orange; beans, peas, and lentils; starchy; and other vegetables. Vegetables may be raw or cooked and can be fresh, frozen, canned, or dried, whole, cut up or mashed.
• As with fruits, the daily recommendation for how many servings of vegetables you should consume is dependent on sex and age. In general, adults need between 2-4 cups of vegetables a day. • 1 large sweet potato, 1 large bell pepper, a large tomato or 2 medium carrots counts as 1 cup of vegetables.
• Did you know that the colors of fruits or vegetables represents the nutrients that they contain? These are called phytonutrients.
o Red fruits and vegetables like apples, beets, watermelon, red peppers, strawberries contain lycopene, which may help prevent cancer
o Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, yellow peppers, oranges, and bananas provide beta cryptothanxin, which supports intracellular communication and may help prevent heart disease
o Green fruits and vegetables: kiwi fruit, collard greens, spinach, broccoli are rich in cancer-blocking chemicals like sulforaphane
o Blue and Purple: Have powerful antioxidants called anthocyanins believed to delay cellular aging and help the heart by blocking the formation of blood clots.
o White and Brown: The onion family contains allicin, which has anti-tumor properties. Other foods in this group contain antioxidant flavonoids like quercetin and kaempferol. Found in: onions, cauliflower, garlic, leeks, parsnips, daikon radish, mushrooms This is why fruits and vegetables make up ½ of MyPlate and why it’s important to Eat the Rainbow. Topic 3: Grains and Proteins
o Grains are an important source of energy in the form of carbohydrates, which is why they make up a large portion of our plate and is represented by the color orange on MyPlate. It is recommended to make ½ your grains whole, meaning to choose options that have the whole grain (germ, endosperm and bran) still intact, which is the part that has all of the fiber and important B vitamins. Whole grains help make you feel fuller for longer and contain fiber, which is important for your digestive system. Whole grain options can be breads, cereals, oatmeal, pasta, brown rice, popcorn, quinoa or barley.
o When choosing grains like bread, check out the nutrition facts label on the package and make sure that the first ingredient is either whole grain or whole wheat flour. Just because its wheat bread does not mean that it is whole grain wheat bread!
o Protein foods are represented by the purple section on MyPlate and is the host to a variety of foods like seafood, meat, poultry, eggs, beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds and soy products.
o You should eat a variety of protein foods to get more of the nutrients that your body needs. Meat and poultry choices should be lean or low-fat, like 93% lean ground beef, pork loin and skinless chicken breasts and choose seafood options that are higher in healthy fatty acids like salmon, anchovies and trout.
o It is recommended to vary your protein routine and try to incorporate more plant-based sources of proteins when possible, which can actually help cut your grocery bill as well!
o We tend to think we need more protein than we actually do. Women need 5-6 ½ oz of protein and men need 5 1/2 – 7 oz. depending on their age.
