The USDA Food Pyramid Provides a Simple and Effective Framework

Pregnant women and their healthcare providers find mypyramid.gov easy to use. A few key pieces of information, such as age, height, weight, due date, and activity level are all that are needed to get started in generating the appropriate plan. The resulting plan is easy to read and use. Rather than focusing on caloric intake, the food pyramid instead encourages choosing a variety of foods from each of the food categories and gives specifc amounts to aim for. The most difficult aspect of understanding the food pyramid is determining what size a portion or serving is. The "tips" feature of the mypyramid.gov website gives excellent detail and explanation of what comprises a serving. Pregnant women without easy computer access should be provided with written material that explains serving sizes, what fits into each category of the food pyramid, and her own individualized pyramid plan.

If computer access is readily available, the mypyramid.gov tool can help a woman plan her nutritional intake throughout her pregnancy. The menu planner feature allows for entering all of the foods eaten on a given day, to see how they fit into the food pyramid. If one area of the pyramid is nutritionally inadequate, recommendations on how to improve can be provided. Menus for the day or week can also be generated from this part of the site.

Whether one chooses the basic paper plan or the more advanced analysis on the computer, all pregnant women who use mypyramid.gov will find the information there clearly written and easy to understand and follow.