Knowledge is power! And knowledge about proper nutrition is a powerful tool for staying healthy. What you eat every day influences your health, your appearance — even your mental attitude.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers nutrition guidance through its 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and its MyPyramid.

MyPyramid is an interactive food guidance system that can help you make healthy food choices. The pyramid features six color bands that represent the five food groups and oils. The first band — and one of the largest — belongs to the grains group. Foods made from grains include bread, pastas, cereals, and tortillas. The USDA recommends you eat 6 ounces of grain-based foods every day and that at least 3 ounces be whole grain foods. One ounce is about 1 slice of bread.

Grain-based foods, especially whole grain foods, are rich in complex carbohydrates and are also a good source of fiber. Below is some information on why carbohydrates are important for health. For more information on why grain-based foods are good for you, visit the Grain Foods Foundation.

• A diet rich in whole grains may reduce the risk for developing coronary heart disease, according to a 1999 study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
• Many varieties of bread are enriched with iron and other B vitamins, including niacin, thiamin and riboflavin. Enrichment has helped to nearly eliminate nutrition-related diseases, such as beriberi, pellagra and severe nutritional anemia.
• Many commercially produced breads are enriched with folic acid, which can potentially decrease the risk of neural tube birth defects (NTDs). Because of the folic acid fortification of breads and other grain foods, NTDs have been decreased by 15 to 30 percent. Other benefits of folic acid fortification include an amazing 60 percent reduction in infant neuroblastoma, an embryonic tumor that is the most common cause of cancer-related death among children between the ages of one and four. New research is proving that folic acid also appears to help prevent heart disease as well as certain cancers, including colon cancer, the second-deadliest cancer in the United States. People on low-carb diets may have an inadequate intake of folic acid.
• A study published in the October 1998 Pediatrics journal found that bread is among the top fiber sources. Bread made from yeast contributes nearly 14 percent of total fiber intake and is the largest fiber contributor for children, with white bread supplying about half that amount.