Design Your Plate and Control Your Food Portion

If you hate counting calories, adding up points, calculating carbohydrate, protein or fat grams, multiplying nutrient percentages and having to remember details about food groups of the food pyramid, then you will love the method that you are going to find out on how you can plan your meals.

All you have to do is take a dinner plate and mentally divide it into four sections.

At each meal, fill two sections with vegetables or a vegetable (the more variety, the better) and a fruit. On the other side, filled one quarter of the plate a serving of protein such as beans, tofu, chicken, fish or lean meat. In the remaining quarter, fill up with whole grain such as whole-wheat couscous or pasta, or brown rice.

Another way to look at this is that half of your food comes from low calorie, high fiber plant based including fruits and vegetables, one quarter from starch and another quarter from protein.

For example:

Breakfast

A sample breakfast might consist of two slices of bread filled with vegetables (cucumber, lettuce and tomato); a glass of low fat milk and one apple. Or a small bowl of noodle soup (clear) with lots of vegetables, and a glass of plain tea or coffee (without sugar and condensed milk) etc.

Lunch

A sample of lunch might consist of grilled fish (one quarter of the plate for a serving of protein), steamed vegetables and ‘ulam’ (half of the plate with vegetables) with ‘sambal belacan’ and brown rice (one quarter of the plate with starch).

Dinner

A sample of dinner might consist of roasted skinless chicken, stir-fried mixed vegetables and steamed ‘kangkung’, brown rice and a bowl of clear vegetable soup.

As for fat intake, the guidelines are simple too. Try avoiding deep-fried foods, condiments and dressings that are high in fat.

When using the divided plate method for meal planning, there is the temptation to cheat, piling your portions as high as you can on your plate.

To avoid this you should fill up your plate clockwise by filling half of your plate with vegetables and followed by a portion of protein and starch.

Dividing the plate is alone is not enough. You should control your portion size as well.

You don’t have to equip your kitchen with extra measuring spoons, measuring cups or foods scales and begin measuring and weighing your food before you eat.

All you have to do is picture portions of food relative to the size of your hand or to a tennis ball. For example:

• A serving of meat, fish or poultry should be about the size of the palm of your hand


• Fruit and vegetable servings should be about the size of your hand when it chopped or about the size of tennis ball
  
  • A slice of bread, one scoop of rice or one small bun counts as one serving
  
  
  • As for fats and oils, a reasonable serving is about the size of your thumb (or half your thumb if you’ve got a big fingers)
  
  
  
  For snacks, choose low calorie and high fiber foods such as fruits and vegetables.
  
  If you eat out frequently, you can use the dividing plate method and the portion control method to judge your portion sizes.
  
  Use these measures when you dine out. It gives you more personal control over your diet, since restaurant portions are larger than the standard serving sizes.