Food Guide Pyramid

- by Lynn F. Little To help us improve our eating habits, the USDA developed the Food Guide Pyramid in which foods are clustered into five groups based on the nutrients they provide. For optimum health, you need the nutrients supplied by all the food groups. No one food group is more important than another, although more servings per day are required from some groups than others in order to meet daily nutrient needs. June is Dairy Month, so this is a good time to take a look at the milk, yogurt and cheese group and how we include those foods in our diets.

Grain products form the base of the Food Guide Pyramid - six to 11 servings are recommended daily. By TERI JOHNSON Staff Writer Three Washington County Hospital employees have become breadwinners of a different sort, thanks to a recent contest. The hospital's nutrition services department sponsored an in-house bread-making competition during March, which was National Nutrition Month. Employees rose to the challenge by submitting 15 entries. Bread was selected because grain products form the base of the Food Guide Pyramid, and six to 11 servings are recommended daily, says Peggy Kemp, the hospital's clinical nutrition manager.