Food Guide Facts: Background for Educators and Communicators

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8. Examples of How the Food Guide Meets Individual Needs

This fact sheet takes a look at how different people can use the Food Guide to meet their needs. The first two examples show how food choices can be balanced over one day. The last three examples briefly discuss how the Food Guide can be used by people with varying needs.

A Young Adult Woman
Anna is a 22-year-old woman. She keeps physically active and maintains a healthy body weight.

Anna's menu plan shows that her servings fall in the middle of the servings range outlined in the Food Guide, reflecting the average needs of a young, active woman. Her food intake is varied and satisfying and does not exceed energy and fat guidelines for a woman her age. Anna chooses lower-fat Grain Products, moderates her choices of higherfat foods like croissants and pastries; uses Vegetables & Fruit that are generally plain without added fat and sauces; chooses lower-fat Milk Products more often; eats within the recommended range of servings for Meat & Alternatives; and moderates her use of fats like butter and oil.

All women must choose foods carefully to ensure adequate calcium and iron intakes.

Anna's need for calcium is met through her 2 servings of milk. Her need for iron is met through a variety of iron-containing foods.

Day's energy 2 100 Cal (8 800 kJ); Percentage of energy from total fat - 28%; Percentage of energy from saturated fat - 9%; Percentage of energy from carbohydrate - 58%

* Other Foods are not totalled because there is no established number of servings for foods in this category.

Food Sources of Iron

• meat
• poultry
• fish
• breakfast cereals
• bread
• dark green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, kale
• enriched pasta
• legumes
• egg
• nuts & seeds
• dried fruits

A Middle-Aged Man
Roger is a 45-year-old healthy male, whose work involves physical labour. Roger's energy needs are relatively high so he chooses a higher number of servings from each food group and the Other Foods category. Roger's energy intake from fat meets the Nutrition Recommendation. His menu plan (at right) shows that Roger chooses a variety of foods, selects lower-fat foods more often, and includes moderate amounts of some higher-fat foods from the four food groups and Other Foods.

Day's energy 3 200 Cal (13 400 kJ); Percentage of energy from total fat- 28%; Percentage of energy from saturated fat - 9%; Percentage of energy from carbohydrate - 59%

* Other Foods are not totalled because there is no established number of servings for foods in this category.

A Vegetarian Teen
Kim is an active 15-year-old who is a lacto-ovo vegetarian. This means he eats Milk Products and eggs but does not eat meat, fish or poultry. Kim chooses from the Food Guide like anyone else, except his selections from the Meat & Alternatives Group will be tofu, other legumes, nuts, nut butters and eggs. He gets enough protein, iron and zinc even though he doesn't eat meat because he consumes Milk Products, legumes and Grain Products every day and eggs a few times a week. The Milk Products ensure an adequate intake of calcium and of vitamin B12, a nutrient that is available only from foods of animal origin.

A Pregnant Woman
Denise is a 30-year-old mother who is seven months pregnant and moderately active. She has an increased need for most nutrients, energy and fluids. Her energy needs can be met by increasing the number of servings from each food group.

Denise's special nutritional challenges are to get sufficient:

• Calcium: She does this by having 3 - 4 servings of Milk Products.
• Iron*: Her needs may be met by choosing more servings and larger portions of iron-containing foods.
• Folacin*: Her needs may be met by choosing more servings of whole grain and enriched Grain Products, dark green vegetables and legumes.

*Since iron and folacin are difficult for pregnant women to get entirely through their diet, the need for a supplement of these two nutrients may be discussed with a doctor or dietitian.

An Older Woman
Lydia is 72 years old. She is in good health and is moderately active. Although Lydia's energy needs have decreased with age, her nutrient needs, except for iron which has also decreased, have remained almost the same. Folacin is of concern to older women so Lydia chooses foods such as whole grain breads, enriched breakfast cereals, legumes and dark green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, asparagus and peas. Because she needs less energy she chooses servings at the lower end of the servings range. So that she gets all of the needed nutrients she chooses the most nutrient-rich foods and moderates her intake of foods high in fat and energy.