Choose My Plate's SuperTracker

Now that I have talked about all the food groups from Choose My Plate, I want to talk to about the SuperTracker on the website! Choose My Plate which was created by the United States Department of Agriculture provides a tool that can help you keep track of the food you eat, your weight, and your exercise. It is a great tool that I had to personally use last spring for my nutrition class.

To get started you have to set up an account with a username and a password. Then it asks you about your weight, height, gender, age, and your level of physical activities. Once you have entered in the information if gives you exactly how many calories you need and how much of each food group you need daily.

Each day you will have enter in everything you ate for the day. You find the foods from the food-tracker and enter in the amount you ate and it will update your daily intake on what you ate. I had to use the food-tracker for three days and write two very important papers on what I ate. It really helped be aware of what I was eating and it helped my lose weight. Last semester I lost seventeen pounds from using this program, eating right, and working out. It was great! However, I have gained seven of those pounds back because I stopped using the program. My doctor was so proud that I had kept ten pounds off though and I am still proud of myself for that. I am going to start using this program again once break begins. I hope this has encouraged you to try it out for yourself!  Here is a slideshow that shows you how to set up an account:
 

Get Started today by clicking either "Choose My Plate" or "SuperTracker" at the top of this blog!

Oils?

Although oils are not a part of the food group, they are important part of your diet. Choose My Plate has a section on them under the food group section because they provide essential nutrients. Oils are fats that are liquid at room temperature. They come from many different plants and from fish. Foods that are mainly oil include mayonnaise, certain salad dressings, and soft margarine with no trans fats. Most oils are high in monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats, and low in saturated fats like canola oil, olive oil, and corn oil. Vegetable and nut oils do not contain any cholesterol and are the healthiest oils to use when cooking! However, coconut oil, palm oil, and palm kernel oil, are high in saturated fats and for nutritional purposes should be considered to be solid fats. Solid fats are fats that are solid at room temperature, like butter and shortening. Solid fats come from many animal foods and can be made from vegetable oils through hydrogenation. Try to avoid these kinds of oils!

Americans can consume enough oil in the foods they eat, such as nuts, fish, cooking oil, and salad dressings. For women ages 19-30 the general recommendation is six teaspoons. For men in the same age range the recommendation is seven teaspoons. These are just the general allowances because a person’s allowance for oils depends on age, gender, and level of physical activity. So even though oils aren't apart of the food group system, they are essential to your diets because of the nutrients they provide.

Dairy Food Group

All fluid milk products and foods made mostly from milk products are made up of this food group. Most Dairy Group choices should be fat-free or low-fat. Foods made from milk that retain their calcium content are part of the group. However, foods made from milk that have little to no calcium, such as cream cheese, cream, and butter, are not a part of this group. Here is what is included in this food group:

·         Milk-skim milk, low fat (1%), reduced fat (2%), whole milk, and flavored milks

·         Milk based desserts-puddings, frozen yogurt, ice cream

·         Cheese-hard natural cheeses such as cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss, and Parmesan. Soft cheeses like ricotta and cottage cheese.

·         Yogurt- all yogurt: fat-free, low fat, reduced fat, whole milk yogurt

Any one ages nine and up is supposed to at least get three cups of dairy daily.  That isn’t too hard to figure out because 1 cup is considered eight ounces and that if you drink milk one eight ounce cup at every meal you are set! One regular size container of yogurt also counts as a cup.

For me personally, I have a hard time with this food group. I have never liked milk. I can’t even eat it with my cereal.  I love cheese though! This is the way I get most of my calcium from. My mother also encouraged me to eat ice cream to also get more calcium. I also have a hard time swallowing yogurt. I love yogurt, but it takes me a long time to eat it. So I definitely had to check out tips from Choose My Plate on how to consume dairy products and here are some of the ones I will use:

·         Make fruit-yogurt smoothies in the blender

·         Have fat-free or low-fat yogurt as a snack

·         Eat fat free cheese sticks

·         Add fat-free or low-fat milk instead of water to oatmeal and hot cereals

There are so many health benefits for the dairy food group. Eating dairy products is linked to improved bone health and reduces the risk of osteoporosis and rickets.The intake of dairy products is especially important to bone health during childhood and adolescence, when bone mass is being built. It is also associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and with lower blood pressure in adults. This food group also provides great nutrients such as Calcium, which is used for building bones and teeth. Dairy products, especially yogurt, fluid milk, and soymilk, provide potassium. Milk and soymilk that are fortified with vitamin D are good sources of this nutrient. Other sources include vitamin D-fortified yogurt and vitamin D-fortified ready-to-eat breakfast cereals.

This is a food group that is important for growth and it is important to maintain eating this food group as you age. I believe that I will become better at eating dairy because I know it will help me live a long life.