The Milk Group (including cheese and ice cream as well as all forms of milk): An adult should consume two or more eight-ounce glasses of milk each day.
The Vegetable-Fruit Group: Select four or more servings each day, including one serving of a good source of Vitamin C, one serving at least every other day of a good source of Vitamin A. The other servings may be any vegetables or fruits.
The Meat Group (including all meats, poultry, fish and eggs): Choose two or more servings each day.
The Bread-Cereals Group: Choose four or more servings daily.
Other Foods: After meeting the suggested servings from these four basic food groups, the Guide recommends selecting from other food sources adequate amounts to provide enough energy to meet daily requirements. The amount of food consumed, in terms of calories, must be balanced with the amount of energy expended. There will be a gain in weight if food intake exceeds energy output.
It is very wise, also, to keep in mind that foods should never be selected merely on the basis of the number of calories in any particular unit of food. For example, we dairy farmers would be especially grateful if more people would remember why milk has been called, "Nature's most nearly perfect food," since the dawn of civilization. The chart shows that milk provides a wide range of essential food nutrients, for people of all ages. Milk can hardly be classified as a "fattening" food on the basis of its nutrient contribution to the total diet. A pint of milk, or two eight-ounce glasses, supplies only 10% to 13% of an adult man's calorie needs, but this amount of milk, as the chart indicates, also provides 25% of the recommended amount of protein—and the highest quality protein available, 71% of the calcium, 15% of the Vitamin A, 46% of the riboflavin and 10% to 12% of the thiamine. There are other essential food nutrients in milk but in less important quantities.
Rest and Exercise Are Necessery
Good general health, prevention of illness and a well balanced diet are all necessary for physical fitness, but they are by no means the total picture. Just as pills are not the answer to all our problems, neither is it possible to "eat your way to good health," as some of the food faddists and quacks proclaim. Adequate amounts of rest are necessary if the body is to recoup itself and to function effectively. The amount of rest any of us needs is something that experience alone teaches, but rest is essential.
Finally, among the physical requirements for physical fitness—and we should not overlook the interrelationship among physical, mental and moral, or spiritual factors in contributing to good health and happiness—we come to the matter of physical activity or exercise.
The required activity need not be violent exercise, but it should, if at all possible, certainly be daily exercise. Walking at least three miles each day, over and above the usual amount of walking on the job, is one of the easiest and best ways to get needed physical activity because walking does use the major body muscles. There certainly are many other forms of exercise that help if they can be done on a fairly regular basis, not merely on weekends—including bicycling, golf, tennis, handball, swimming, bowling, etc. Even a football or basketball game can provide the right kind of exercise, provided the participants walk to the stadium or fieldhouse instead of riding in the car.