When I was in elementary school, we learned that a balanced diet consisted of meat, dairy, fruits/vegetables, and grains. There were cartoonish posters with drawings of the different foods in each group, and I think I even remember some really lame videos.
On one hand, this formulation was Eurocentric and didn’t apply to many healthy diets practiced throughout the world (not to mention the diets of vegetarians or people with grain/dairy allergies), but on the other hand, I sure do admire its simplicity. Maybe the four food groups aren’t as bad as some people claim.
My wife and I have been cooking all our dinners on Sundays, so we have them ready to go through the week when we work late. We make a casserole with a starch, a meat, a vegetable or two, and cheese on top, and they’re tasty, nutritious, and balanced. We didn’t have the four food groups in mind when we put together our list of recipes, but in hindsight, we complied with the old-fashioned system completely.
It seems like, if you include something from each group in a meal, there’s about zero chance you’ll be deficient in anything.
Anybody else have thoughts on the four food groups? Love the system? Hate it?