Read my previous post again.To suggest 6 to 11 daily slices of bread is healthy for the average American is a bit ludicrous.
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.The USDA didn't interpret the food pyramid like this, and it wasn't taught like this. The food pyramid was for daily consumption. You can easily look up any presentation from the 90's and find this information. I was also in elementary school when it was popular, and it was a daily consumption guideline.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2r4cAAAAIBAJ&pg=4658,6907219
And the closer readings of their 90's advice was meat was the maximum recommended amount, and fruits was considered a minimum. Which still results in a really jacked up diet, because who is eating 6+ servings a fruit per day?
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)