Pyramid Tool

• Find out what a healthy balanced diet looks like. Many people are not familiar with how many servings of each type of food they actually need. Some may be surprised at the large number of vegetables that they need or the small amount of fat that they should have. For an average healthy diet, according to the Mayo Clinic, adults should have a minimum of three fruit and four vegetable servings per day, at least four servings of whole grain carbs and three servings of protein, including dairy, three to five servings of fats and no more than 75 calories of sweets.
  
  

Serving Size

• You may be surprised to learn how large an actual serving size is of some foods. For example, one serving of cheese is about the size of four dice, one serving of peanut butter is about ping-pong ball sized, and a serving of meat, poultry or fish is about the size of a palm or deck of cards. Without measuring or knowing these sizes, you may be eating more or less of a food item than you think you are.
  
  

Spread It Out

• Getting in all of your servings of healthy foods each day will be easier if you spread out the servings throughout the day. For healthy grains, have breakfast with oatmeal, eat whole grain tortillas at lunch and use whole grain pasta for dinner. Fruits can be juice in the morning, grapes with a sandwich or strawberries for dinner dessert. Protein is the peanut butter in your sandwich as well as the chicken in your dinner stew. One or two servings at each meal will add up to a balanced diet each day.