• 2 cups of fruit

  • Stay away from fruit juice - it's really only sugar water

• 2 1/2 cups of vegetables

  • Include ALL types of vegetables - Yes, even potatoes

    • dark green, orange, legumes, starchy vegetables, and other vegetables

Whole Grains: (click for more information)

• 6 Ounces (1 slice of bread, 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, or ½ cup of cooked rice, cooked pasta, or cooked cereal can be considered as 1 ounce equivalent)

  • Make sure all grains are WHOLE grains

  • Look for the words "whole wheat" or "whole grain" on the label (if you see the words "enriched wheat flour" or "enriched flour" - put it back on the shelf!)

Dairy: (Milk, Yogurt, Cheese)

• 3 Cups

• Always choose fat-free or low-fat dairy products

  • See a chart of 1 cup equivalents for dairy

• Limit your fat intake to about 30 percent of total calories.

• You should consume no more than 2 - 3 grams of Trans Fat per day. Be very careful when reading labels about trans fat. Beginning in January 2006 the FDA requires all food manufacturers to list Trans Fat on the label. But, there's a catch - - watch for the portion size. The FDA rule is that if each PORTION contains .5 grams or less of Trans Fat, it can be labeled "NO TRANS FAT" or "FAT FREE". For instance, if you buy a package of cookies labeled "FAT FREE" and the serving size is 3 cookies and those 3 cookies contain .5 grams of trans fat AND you eat 6 cookies - you will be consuming 1 gram of Trans Fat! The best way to be sure there is NO Trans Fat is to read the ingredients - if you see the words hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated - you can be pretty sure there is at least some Trans Fat.

• Each gram of fat contains 9 calories, meaning that if you consume 2,000 calories per day your total fat grams should be around 67 (2000 * 30 % / 9 = 66.666)

• Focus on Mono-unsaturated fats like olive oil and canola oil, and Omega-3 & 6 fatty acids

• Try to balance your intake of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Do that by eating things like tuna/salmon/trout or Omega-3 oils like flax seed. Click here for more information about Omega-3 and Omega-6.