Food Pyramids and Meal Breakdowns.

What does my diet look like?

Often times we read blogs or fitness plans that discuss how you should break down your food and nutrition requirements.  I did a few searches for food pyramids, thinking maybe someone would do the same and print them off and stick them on their refrigerator.   When you are first starting to eat different, it can be confusing on how much of what you are supposed to eat.  Diets typically do a good job of defining this, but I started to notice when searching around for something to print off that I noticed some differences (especially in Paleo food pyramids).

Lets break down by a few popular diets: Paleo, Vegan, Ketogenic.

Paleo:

and

Problems?

Nut consumption is different in both pyramids.  Fat ratios are completely different in both pyramids.  

Ketogenic:
                                       

and

Problems?

Some sugars are okay in one of the pyramids.  Although overall the pyramids seem to line up.  

Vegan:

and

Problems?

Not that many differences here.  So that's a bit more clear although besides legumes, it's unclear where you get your protein from.

What does this mean?

I Google searched and found all of these images claiming to be food pyramids for associated diets.  You will see that they all have some subtle differences (vegan pyramids may be the exception here), which suggests that people that follow Paleo or any other diet may have a different interpretation of what that means.  2 images per diet is a small amount to draw any sort of statistically significant conclusion but I imagine if I spent more time analyzing more pyramids I would find more differences of interpretation.  

I personally have a bit of a sliding scale with my macro nutrient breakdowns. I try to hit 50-60% calories from fat, 20-30% from protein, and less than 5-10% from carbs.  My intake of vegetables, nuts, oils that you see probably follow closest to the Paleo food pyramid near the top (minus fruit since I'm low carb).  

I suggest if you follow a diet, you shift around your macro nutrient numbers not based on one food pyramid for your flavor of nutrition, but loosely based on your goals and needs.  Some people work better on more protein or fat than others.  But do what works best for you, first and foremost.

What do I eat?

As confusing as trying to get our percentages to line up with what we think we should be doing, eating for a day can be a whole different conflict.  I wanted to step you through what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast:

Bulletproof coffee

2 Shots espresso

3 Tbs grass fed butter (unsalted)

1 Tbs coconut oil

Fresh Green Juice

few bunches kale

few handfuls spinach

few handfuls flat leaf parsley

chunk of ginger

juice of 1 lemon

2 cucumbers

Lunch

Coconut Milk Curry (about 1 cup)

Includes red peppers, some olive oil, yellow onion, carrots, coconut milk, spices

Afternoon Snack

Grass fed whey protein concentrate shake (sugar free)

Dinner

4 oz grass fed steak (cooked rare)

1/2 pound asparagas

1 whole avocado

I did my best to put all of this information into myfitnesspal.com and get totals of my macro-nutrient ratios.  I modified cabs, because dietary fiber doesn't affect blood sugar so the carb number in the graph is about 40% less than on myfitnesspal.com. 

How do your meals break down?

Sources:

http://paleohacks.com/questions/157033/paleo-food-pyramid

http://www.themoderngypsies.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Paleo-Food-Pyramid.png

http://josepharcita.blogspot.com/2011/03/guide-to-ketosis.html

http://janderson99.hubpages.com/hub/Vegan-Food-Pyramid-for-Vegetarian-Diets

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