Read my previous post again.
you are suposed to eat as varied as possible inside each category. so those 6 portions should be:
- Breakfast - 2 portions of bread
- Lunch - 2 portions of rice
- Tea- 1 portion of bread
- Dinner - 2 portions of potato
Also do note that bread there is actually bread (no added sugar/salt). I am an european but from my understanding a lot of american "breads" have added sugar. Those are added to the sweets category
That is a really weird way to present the pyramid. As a portuguese we were taught 3 versions: food wheel, food pyramid, by categories. As a child food wheel was the easiest to understand.
In Portugal (and I assume most of europe) were taught this about food pyramid/wheel:
- Eat from each category every day
- Eat varied inside each category everyday
- Eat just the portions needed (don't repeat/refill the plate)
The problems with the food pyramid are:
- doesn't consider water
- Considers grains more healthy then vegetables
- Don't differentiate between quick absorption carbohydrates and slow absorption of carbohydrates ("white" grains vs whole grains)
- Doesn't differentiate between fats (olive oil is better then vegetable oil; fats from nuts are healthy then margarine)
- Doesn't differentiate quality of protein (eggs, red meat provide much better protein then nuts/beans)
Also the 6 portions of fruit isn't bad. It is from assuming you eat 1 piece of fruit at every meal. Most people do 5 meals every day. Also do note that 1 portion of fruit is, if my memory doesn't fail me, 80g of fruit. Most fruits sold in hyper/supermarkets are very big and probably count for 2-3 portions. In your local markets you should find smaller fruits that would probably be similar to the portion mentioned.
Before anyone asks where i get m,y information (source Direção Geral de Saúde - portuguese NHS)
