How to use the guide
Homemakers who follow the guide will find it flexible enough to use in choosing foods for families.
Food choices within the groups are wide enough to allow for a variety of everyday foods. Meals can be planned to include family favorites, foods in season, and foods to fit the family budget.
The size of servings can be suited to the needs of family members—small servings for children and for those wanting to lose weight; extra large servings (or seconds) for very active adults, teenagers, and those wanting to gain weight. Pregnant and nursing women also need more food.
Foods from the Daily Food Guide fit easily into a three-meals-a-day pattern of eating. Foods from each group often appear in each meal—but this isn’t essential. The important thing is that the suggested number of servings from each food group be included sometime during the day.
Many people want and need more food than the minimum servings suggested from the four food groups. To round out meals and satisfy appetites, you can include additional foods from the four groups as well as other foods not listed in these groups.
A Daily Food Guide
MEAT GROUP
Foods Included
Beef; veal; lamb; pork; variety meats, such as liver, heart, kidney.
Poultry and eggs.
Fish and shellfish.
As alternates—dry beans, dry peas, lentils, nuts, peanuts, peanut butter.
Amounts Recommended
Choose 2 or more servings every day.
Count as a serving: 2 to 3 ounces of lean cooked meat, poultry, or fish—all without bone; 2 eggs; 1 cup cooked dry beans, dry peas, or lentils; 4 tablespoons peanut butter.
VEGETABLE-FRUIT GROUP
Foods Included
All vegetables and fruits. This guide emphasizes those that are valuable as sources of vitamin C and vitamin A.
Sources of Vitamin C
Good sources.—Grapefruit or grapefruit juice; orange or orange juice; cantaloup; guava; mango; papaya; raw strawberries; broccoli; brussels sprouts; green pepper; sweet red pepper.
Fair sources.—Honeydew melon; lemon; tangerine or tangerine juice; watermelon; asparagus tips; raw cabbage; collards; garden cress; kale; kohlrabi; mustard greens; potatoes and sweetpotatoes cooked in the jacket; spinach; tomatoes or tomato juice; turnip greens.
Sources of Vitamin A
Dark-green and deep-yellow vegetables and a few fruits, namely: Apricots, broccoli, cantaloup, carrots, chard, collards, cress, kale, mango, persimmon, pumpkin, spinach, sweetpotatoes, turnip greens and other dark-green leaves, winter squash.
Amounts Recommended
Choose 4 or more servings every day, including:
1 serving of a good source of vitamin C or 2 servings of a fair source.
1 serving, at least every other day, of a good source of vitamin A. If the food chosen for vitamin C is also a good source of vitamin A, the additional serving of a vitamin A food may be omitted.
The remaining 1 to 3 or more servings may be of any vegetable or fruit, including those that are valuable for vitamin C and for vitamin A.
Count as 1 serving: ½ cup of vegetable or fruit; or a portion as ordinarily served, such as 1 medium apple, banana, orange, or potato, half a medium grapefruit or cantaloup, or the juice of 1 lemon.
MILK GROUP
Foods Included
Milk—fluid whole, evaporated, skim, dry, buttermilk.
Cheese—cottage; cream; Cheddar-type, natural or process.
Ice cream.
Amounts Recommended
Some milk every day for everyone.
Recommended amounts are given below in terms of 8-ounce cups of whole fluid milk:
| Children under 9 | 2 to 3 | Adults | 2 or more |
| Children 9 to 12 | 3 or more | Pregnant women | 3 or more |
| Teen-agers | 4 or more | Nursing mothers | 4 or more |
Part or all of the milk may be fluid skim milk, buttermilk, evaporated milk, or dry milk.
Cheese and ice cream may replace part of the milk. The amount of either it will take to replace a given amount of milk is figured on the basis of calcium content. Common portions of cheese and of ice cream and their milk equivalents in calcium are:
| 1-inch cube Cheddar-type cheese | = ½ cup milk |
| ½ cup cottage cheese | = ⅓ cup milk |
| 2 tablespoons cream cheese | = 1 tablespoon milk |
| ½ cup ice cream | = ¼ cup milk |
BREAD-CEREAL GROUP
Foods Included
All breads and cereals that are whole grain, enriched, or restored; check labels to be sure.
Specifically, this group includes: Breads; cooked cereals; ready-to-eat cereals; cornmeal; crackers; flour; grits; macaroni and spaghetti; noodles; rice; rolled oats; and quick breads and other baked goods if made with whole-grain or enriched flour. Bulgur and parboiled rice and wheat also may be included in this group.
Amounts Recommended
Choose 4 servings or more daily. Or, if no cereals are chosen, have an extra serving of breads or baked goods, which will make at least 5 servings from this group daily.
Count as 1 serving: 1 slice of bread; 1 ounce ready-to-eat cereal; ½ to ¾ cup cooked cereal, cornmeal, grits, macaroni, noodles, rice, or spaghetti.
OTHER FOODS
To round out meals and meet energy needs, almost everyone will use some foods not specified in the four food groups. Such foods include: unenriched, refined breads, cereals, flours; sugars; butter, margarine, other fats. These often are ingredients in a recipe or added to other foods during preparation or at the table.
Try to include some vegetable oil among the fats used.