Level 2 - Food Pyramid

Left and right in Pyramid Food level 2. Photo by gll-getalife.com

Left Level 

What's In It?

The left side of the lower middle layer consists of the vegetables in your diet. These vegetables are not limited to leafy green vegetable like other programs but include all vegetables that are available. In addition to raw vegetable and the like, this level also includes vegetable juices like mixed juice and tomato juice.

What Should I Eat?

You should ideally consume 3-5 servings of vegetables each day to ensure that you are adhering to a healthy diet. When selecting your vegetables, be sure to eat as many raw ones as you can. Raw vegetables contain all of the nutrients that typically come in the plant while canned or cooked vegetables tend to robbed of most of their nutrients.

How Much Is a Serving?

One serving from this middle/left level of the pyramid constitutes 1 cup of raw vegetables, 1/2 cup of chopped or cooked vegetables or 3/4 cup of juice.

Fruits and vegetables in level 2 of food pyramid. Photo from district.eastchesterschools.org

Right Level

What's In It?

 The right side of the lower middle layer consists of the fruits in your diet. In addition to raw fruits and the like, this level also consists of fruit juices like apple, grape and orange juice. Remember that this level also consists of berries like strawberries and raspberries.

What Should I Eat?

 You should ideally consume 2 to 4 servings of fruit each and every day to ensure that you are adhering to a healthy diet. When choosing fruit juice, look for varieties that contain no added sugar. Excellent varieties of natural fruit juices that contain no preservatives are widely available. If you have the time and resources, you may even consider making your own fruit juice from fresh fruit. In fact, "juicers" can be readily purchased at department stores and can be used to make vegetable juice as well.

How Much Is a Serving

 One serving from this middle/right level of the pyramid constitutes a single medium sized piece of fruit (apple, mango, orange, banana), 1/2 cup of canned, heated or sliced fruit or 3/4 cup of fruit juice