What are the Food Exchange List?

Foods that are alike are grouped together in lists. The six exchange lists help to make your meal plan work. All the foods on a list have about the same amount of carbohydrate, protein, fat, and calories. In the amounts given, all the choices on each list are equal. Any food on a list can be exchanged or traded for any other food on the same list. The six lists are: starches, vegetables, meats, fruit, milk, and fat.

The exchange lists and the meal plan will provide you with a great variety of food choices, and they will help you to control the distribution of calories, carbohydrate, protein, and fat throughout the day so that your food will be balanced.

The reason for dividing food into six different groups is that foods vary in their carbohydrate, protein, fat, and calorie content. Each exchange list contains foods that are alike; each food choice on a list contains about the same amount of carbohydrate, protein, fat, and calories as the other choices on that list.

Continue to Page 2>>