The Wise Choices Food Pyramid: What if we did compare apples and oranges?

With more sedentary lives and more available food, our waistlines are growing and chronic diseases related to nutrition – like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers – are on the rise. Our diets, although abundant, are relatively less healthy than in the past. In the face of those trends, it is important to learn to make better choices among the multitude of food options in the grocery stores and at meal times. The goal of this project was to create a visual guide to healthy foods to support individuals in making better nutritional choices. The Wise Choices Food Pyramid provides additional visual guidance for an individual wanting to select foods within a food group that would supply the most nutritional benefit. Foods in the Wise Choices Pyramid are ranked, from left to right, within each of the food groups according to their contributions of beneficial and essential nutrients. Work completed at: The University of Montana Rural Institute on Disabilities Work supported in part by Cooperative Agreement Number R04/CCR823272-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).