Let's Uncover the Truth Behind
The Vegan Food Pyramid

There's just one teensy tiny thing...

Do you have to eat all the recommended foods from every food group every single day? What if you have a day where you're just not that hungry? Are you supposed to just shove all the food in your pie hole anyway?!

Well, somewhere along the way I came across three very important pieces of the puzzle...

• The recommendations for the foods in the Vegan Food Pyramid are not necessarily DAILY recommendations, but the foods you should strive to eat in a 48-hour time period.

For example...

Look at the Veggie Group in the Pyramid - and note that the recommendation is 2-4 cups of veggies.

So one day you might be in a rush and only eat 1/2 cup of veggies (equal to 1 serving). But the next day you make a soup chock full of veggies and have 2 cups for lunch (equal to 4 servings), then in the evening you have a giant salad (2 cups of raw green salad is a serving, by the way), and you have 1 cup of broccoli with your meal (another 2 servings). And don't forget about accent veggies you likely ate throughout the day like onions, garlic, and bell peppers - likely adding up to another 1/2 cup (serving), perhaps?

This is what is meant by eating a balanced diet -- you're not perfect every day, but over the course of a couple days things even out and you're still on track.

So don't go crazy trying to eat exactly the amounts called for on a daily basis. Use it as a general guide so you understand the various food groups you want to reach for to keep your vegan diet in balance.

One thing you will notice pretty quickly is that there is no room for CRAP food. You only have so much room in your tummy, and if you want to be healthy, then you simply must save the room for your veggies, beans, whole grains, fruit, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats.

Go ahead and have the occasional junk food if you must, but do so sparingly. Just be smart -- this food is building and running your body!

And remember also, if you eat and eat and never seem to feel full, then you are likely not getting the nutrients your body needs.

• Many foods in the Vegan Food Pyramid can be included in more than one food group.

For instance, the Pyramid's Fortified Soymilk and Alternates grouping takes the place of the conventional pyramid's Dairy Food Group -- both food groups focus on calcium-rich foods.

A serving of calcium-rich greens (like Kale or Broccoli) count as a serving in the Vegetables Group AND in the Fortified Soymilks and Alternates. Why? Because they are vegetables which also contain lots of calcium.

Here's another one. The Bean and Bean Alternates group takes the place of the conventional pyramid's Meat grouping (protein).

A serving of calcium-enriched tofu, then, would fall into not only the Bean and Bean Alternates Group (soy bean), but the Fortified Soymilk and Alternates Group too (calcium-enriched).

Final one. A serving of almond butter will fall into not only the Bean and Bean Alternates grouping (protein), but also the Fortified Soymilk and Alternates group because almonds are high in calcium.

If you need help figuring out which foods fall into which groups, then visit my in-depth nutrition article where you will find a tool to help you figure out the nutritional data for various foods. A little "too much information", but it is there if you need it!

• In 1943, the USDA came out with the first Food Guide known as the "7 Basic Food Groups". What did they recommend we eat back then? Among other things canned vegetables and fruits, evaporated and/or dried milk, enriched or restored bread, flour, and cereals, and fortified margarine!

Oy vey. I think most of us would agree that these foods are not exactly the hallmark of a healthy diet.

• From 1956-1992, the USDA presented "The Four Food Groups", which many of us can remember from our days in elementary school. The Four Food Groups consisted of foods like milk and ice cream, meats/fish/poultry/eggs/cheese (this food group also included beans/peas/nuts but few people ever talked about these foods!), veggies and fruits (smooshed together in one group), and breads and cereals. (And it should be mentioned, as John Robbins points out in Diet For A New America, the "Basic Four" was promoted by the National Egg Board, the National Dairy Council, and the National Livestock and Meat Board—but I digress);
• In 1992, the USDA came out with a new fangled pyramid shape, which gave much more prominence to whole grains and cereals, bumping them from 4 servings up to 6-11 servings. They also upped the veggies a bit, decreased the fruits, and the other stuff pretty much stayed the same;
• In 2011, at the urging of concerned health and wellness professionals and U.S. citizens, the USDA created a "new and improved" Food Pyramid, only this time it was a very simple graphic of a plate.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce (drum roll please)...

This is the latest and the greatest from the USDA as of June 2011.

What do we notice? Well, first of all it appears that we have all become pretty dumbed down if we can only deal with a simple graphic like this.    :)

But seriously, they recommend 30 percent of our diet should be grains, 30 percent vegetables, 20 percent fruits and 20 percent protein. And then off to the side for good measure is the dairy. It is thought that it is easiest for people to look at this image and know just by looking at their plate if they are meeting the recommended food groups each day and week.

So they started out with a chart that had a category called "Meat" and now they have switched this category to "Protein." Could it be because they have come to the conclusion that we can get our protein from foods other than meat, no problem?

That's all well and good. But what does the USDA have to say about the vegan diet?