What is pyramid in food?

In Ireland, the Food Pyramid is used to make healthy eating easier. It shows the different food groups and how much of each we need to have a healthy diet. Eating the right amount from each food group is called eating a "balanced" diet.

Eating well is important for all of us. In the short-term, it can help us to feel good, look our best and stay at a healthy weight. In the long-term, a healthy, balanced diet can reduce our risk of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and some cancers.

The Food Pyramid organises food into five main shelves - a shelf for each food group. The most important shelf is on the bottom and the least important on the top.

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• Fruit and vegetables.
• Starchy foods, such as bread, cereals and potatoes.
• Proteins, such as meat, fish, eggs and beans.
• Milk and dairy foods.
• Fats and sugars.

Consumers can think of the Healthy Eating Pyramid as a grocery list:

The Healthy Eating Pyramid image on this Web site is owned by Harvard University. It may be downloaded and used without permission for educational and other non-commercial uses with proper attribution, including the following copyright notification and credit line:

Copyright © 2008. For more information about The Healthy Eating Pyramid, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, www.thenutritionsource.org, and Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, by Walter C. Willett, M.D., and Patrick J. Skerrett (2005), Free Press/Simon & Schuster Inc.”

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In 1992, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) introduced the Food Pyramid, a tool designed to be used by adults searching for what to include in a healthy diet. Since its introduction, the pyramid—which is now displayed as a plate instead of a pyramid—has undergone some drastic changes.

The USDA's initial pyramid diagram was divided into six separate horizontal sections, spread across three tiers. The bottom tier, which included grains such as bread and pasta, recommended that an individual eat 6-11 servings of these foods per day. The middle tier recommended adults eat 2-5 servings of fruits and vegetables and the top tier recommended adults eat 2-3 servings of dairy and protein.

But many people found the stacked tiers confusing and interpreted them as steps to advance through, rather than as individual pieces of a well-rounded diet. This led some people to eat only grains throughout the day, as that was the largest—and seemingly most important—tier on the pyramid.

In 2005, the USDA introduced the MyPyramid system. In this new diagram, categories of food were displayed as vertical slices instead of horizontal tiers to clear up confusion.

"The MyPyramid diagram focused on illustrating three key concepts: variety, moderation and proportion," said Bradee Rojas, MS, RDN. "A variety of different colors made the diagram more appealing to children, and the accompanying illustration of a person climbing up the pyramid subconsciously planted the importance of exercise into their brains."

The “pyramid” used today, which was introduced in 2011, reflects the largest change in visual representation since the concept was first invented. In fact, the food pyramid is no longer a pyramid at all, and is instead represented as a plate.

The MyPlate campaign by the USDA uses an illustration of a plate separated into four key groups—fruits, vegetables, protein and grains. To the right of the plate is a small circle for dairy, meant to represent a glass of milk or cup of yogurt.

The MyPlate visualization works as a reminder to eat balanced portions from each of the 5 food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. "Also, the USDA dropped the category for sugars and processed oils that they used to include, an indication that these types of foods really don't have a place in a healthy diet" said Rojas.