If you're looking for guidance on how to improve your diet, the Department of Agriculture has a new menu-planning tool that could become your new best friend.
The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion has crafted a free Internet program that allows users to type in information about what they are eating and see how their diet stacks up nutritionally.
The planner calculates what the user should be consuming in grains, vegetables, fruit, milk and protein and gives directions on how to reach those goals.
For example, if a person wants to increase consumption of whole grains, tips include trying oatmeal or snacking on ready-to-eat, whole grain cereals. Want to increase milk consumption? Try topping your baked potato with fat-free yogurt.
Go to mypyramid.gov
Available at mypyramid.gov, the planner is based on the USDA's 2005 Dietary Guidelines. The planner tracks calories, including those from foods high in fat and sugar. But it is designed to go beyond counting calories to uncovering not just the quantity, but the quality of foods consumed each day.
"You can take all the host of calorie counters in the world ... they'll tell you how many calories you ate; they're not going to tell you whether you're eating a balanced diet or not," says Brian Wansink, director of the nutrition center.
Using information about the user's age, gender, weight, height and level of physical activity, the planner assesses how balanced a person's eating habits are and offers tips for small changes that could tip the scales in a healthier direction.
It shows people where they can improve and tracks how far they've come.
"They can find out that it's not hopeless ... and they can turn their dietary boat around tomorrow," says Wansink, who uses the tool to take quick snapshots of his own eating habits.
Wansink says the planner's primary value lies in the way it personalizes the calorie and dietary limits relative to whatever goals a person has to maintain or to lose weight. People who enter a weight that appears excessive are asked if they would like to plan menus that would keep them at their current weight or others that would facilitate gradual weight loss.
Dawn Jackson Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, says she likes the planner because it is "easy to use, and it offers immediate feedback on what someone is eating and suggestions on how to make realistic changes." She especially likes the interactive charts and tools.
"It doesn't just leave it at calories; there's a daily or a weekly report. It will actually tell you if you are good, low or high in something, so you can see problem areas," Blatner says. "If it tells you you're low in vegetables, it doesn't just say 'Good luck with that' but gives you ideas for how to change those areas."
Bonnie Taub-Dix, another spokeswoman for the dietetic association, also recommends the site. Though she says it could be time-consuming to enter every meal, if people take "a little bit of time over the weekend, it could really give them a little slice of what their week could be like."
The menu planner could be a launching mechanism for lifestyle change, Blatner says.
"If some people would make three small changes (a week), it would ... help them cut out 200 to 250 calories out of their daily intake," Wansink says.
Over the course of a year, this could translate to a weight loss of about 25 pounds.
The no-strings-attached availability of the menu planner enables people to use it once a week or daily without being required to register with a username or password.
It can be difficult for some people to visit a dietitian, Taub-Dix says. "What I like about this so much is that what the government is trying to do is come up with something real, something for all ages."
She believes it affords a woman, for instance, the opportunity to calculate what her children and husband are eating, which is exactly what Wansink hopes will occur.
The government designed the planner with two major groups in mind: consumers and educators.
The USDA's nutritional experts hope the planner will be used by consumers who are the nutritional gatekeepers in their families, as well as individuals who want to eat better or are curious about how well they're eating now.
Specialty plans in the works
The USDA hopes to introduce similar aides later this year specifically designed for the nutritional needs of nursing mothers and for the dietary needs of preschool children, ages 2-5.
In the meantime, Wansink's long-term hope for the planner is that people will use it and realize the positive impact of small changes.
"It's not a substitute for personalized nutrition guidance," Taub-Dix says.
"But it's a great substitute for someone who would otherwise do nothing about trying to determine whether their diet is well-balanced."
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