The food pyramid

im sure we have all seen the food pyramid at some point weather it be at school or at the doctors office , it might differ from country to country and it does get adjusted from time to time the more we learn about nutrition can influence the way the food pyramid is lay out.

I always advice people to look at the food pyramid to get a rough idea of how much of each food category to eat in correlation to each other.

as you can see by the pyramid fruits and vegetables are extreamly important to having a balanced diet. most of us don't get our 5 a day. even I am guilty of that. the easiest way I fined to do that is by eating soup and drinking smoothies home made is obviously better then shop bought so you can customise it to your taste. you can just put in 5 portions of fruits n veg into a blender and drink it and not have to worry about it then for the rest of the day.

I will also say to take the pyramid with a pinch of salt to some extent as you need to customise your diet to your own individual needs. for example the classic calories a day situation. some people need more calories a day then others. I adjust my daily calorie intake  depending on what I want to achieve fitness wise. this is not to say you shouldn't eat carbs , veg or protein though , you should still eat these you just might need more of them depending on your needs.

you might also see pictures like these that contradict the pyramid slightly, in this picture you can see its showing you to eat the same amount of carbs and fruit and veg , but in the pyramid its showing you to eat more fruit and veg then carbs and starchy foods. I personally don't worry about how much fruit veg and starchy foods I eat a day in correlation to eachother  as long as I get my 5 a day and enough starchy foods to give me energy .

the most important thing about both of these diagrams is to not eat to many bad foods like chocolate sweets or any processed foods. but like I always say its not necessary to cut out these food entirely.
weather you decide to count macros and calories or just do intuitive eating like I do is up to you. I personally don't like to be to strict with my self when it comes to my diet along as I follow the rough guideline of having more fruit and veg carbs and protein then processed food and dairy.

I would also like to point out that its not always about quantity but quality.

I hope these diagrams give you a rough guideline on the amounts of the different food groups you should be eating.