Eat More Grain Foods

Grain products include bread, rice, cereal, and pasta. These are an essential part of your diet because they are important sources beneficial carbohydrates, like starch and fiber, along with vitamins and minerals.

Some people believe that starchy food like breads, pasta, and rice are fattening. This is not necessarily so, particularly if you eat whole meal or whole grain breads and brown rice. However, when you add fats like margarine, mayonnaise, cheese sauce, oil, or gravy to them, then you can quickly elevate the calorie level of the food.

Whole-grain foods have more fiber and less starch than white grain foods. Whole-grain foods include brown rice, oatmeal, corn tortillas, and whole wheat and whole grain bread.
This group is at the bottom of the pyramid. This means that the foods in this group should make up the biggest part of what you eat each day.