Food facts with Best Grains to include in Your Diet: Diet, Chart ranking protein & fiber in food, How to eat healthy.

Eating healthy is a great way to feel better.

The Daily food chart:

Fats: 2 servings (like one tsp of olive oil per serving) or sparingly

Dairy: 2-3 servings

Fruits: 2-4 servings

Vegetables: 3-5 servings

Fish, Poultry, Meat, Dry Beans, Eggs, Nuts, Legumes: 2-3 servings

Grains, bread, cereal, rice, pasta 6 servings

For vegetarians, the food chart to consider whenever planning your day is:

Fats:2 servings
Dairy (if you allow): 2-3 servings

Fruits 2-4 servings

Vegetables: 4-6 servings

Legumes, nuts, & other protein rich foods: 5 servings

Grains (that can also have a high protein count, like Quinoa): 6-11 servings

Best Grains and how they Rank:

It's misleading, if not impossible, to rank grains. Their relative value depends on what nutrients you are looking for. Is one nutrient more important than another? Is fiber more important than protein? Maybe, if you're a senior citizen, but not if you're a child. Do you judge nutritional value by nutrients per ounce, or nutrients per calorie? When you see any rating system for food, take it with a grain of salt and remember that variety is an important key to healthy eating.

In spite of these difficulties, I decided to give it a try and rate the twelve most common grains according to the following nutrients: protein, fiber, iron, zinc, folic acid, vitamin E, riboflavin, niacin, thiamine, and calcium. If you assign one point for each of these nutrients, the ratings come out as follows:

Total Nutrient Points (highest to lowest)	Fiber Content (grams per serving)	Protein (grams per serving)
1. Amaranth 2. Rye 3. Oats 4. Wild rice 5. Millet 6. Barley 7. Quinoa 8. Buckwheat 9. Whole wheat 10. Brown rice 11. White rice 12. Corn	1. Barley 2. Amaranth 3. Whole wheat 4. Rye 5. Buckwheat 6. Millet 7. Oats 8. Wild Rice 9. Quinoa 10. Corn 11. Brown Rice 12. White Rice	1. Amaranth 2. Oats 3. Rye 4. Wild rice 5. Millet 6. Quinoa 7. Barley 8. Whole wheat 9. Buckwheat 10. Corn 11. Brown Rice 12. White Rice

The grains highest in calcium, ranked in order are: amaranth, quinoa, oats, barley, rye, and whole wheat. Gluten-free grains are: corn, rice, soy. (Buckwheat may contain a small amount of gluten.) The top five grains for iron are: quinoa, amaranth, oats, enriched rice, millet and barley. The top grains for zinc (an important immune-booster) are: wild rice, rye, amaranth, oats, and quinoa. The top grains for folic acid are: millet, wild rice, rye, amaranth, and oats.