When you sit down to a meal, do you automatically start shoveling food into your mouth? Or are you more conscious of how much you’re eating and how it will impact your health? If you’re like most people, you probably take the latter approach.
It’s important to be mindful of how much we eat not just for our own sake, but also for the sake of the environment. By being properly portioned, we can make sure that we’re not consuming too many calories or filling up with unhealthy foods. Here are some tips on how to properly portion your plate:
1. Start with a salad or vegetables as your main course. This way, you’re not eating as many calories and you’re getting your nutrients.
2. If you’re having a main course, aim for around 2/3 of the plate to be filled with healthy foods, like vegetables, protein and healthy fats.
3. Avoid things like bread, pasta, rice and potatoes at all costs. They’re all high in carbs and they’ll quickly fill up your stomach.
4. Finally, don’t forget about dessert! Just because you’ve hit your recommended calorie limit for the day doesn’t mean that you have to deprive yourself of something sweet. Limit yourself to no more than 5-6 pieces of fruit or 1-2 slices of cake/yogurt cake.
The Plate Concept
What’s on your plate?
When it comes to proper portioning of our food, we often go with what feels comfortable. But is that what’s best for us? A recent study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that the traditional “plate concept” may not be the best way to eat.
The Plate Concept
Most of us are used to seeing a horizontal plate divided into sections, each with an equal number of pieces of food. This way of eating has been popularized over the years and is often seen as the ideal way to eat. The problem with this approach, according to the study, is that it gives us a skewed idea of how much we’re really eating.
When we see a plate like this, we often assume that all of the food on it is equally important. But according to the study, this isn’t actually the case. We tend to focus mainly on the largest portion (usually at the center), which means that we’re missing out on other important parts of our meals.
Instead, the researchers recommend adopting a “vertical” plate view where different foods are represented by colors instead of numbers. This way, you’ll be more aware of how much you’re eating and you’ll be able to better control your calorie intake.
Final Thoughts
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t really know how much to eat when it comes to food portions. In fact, chances are you might be eating more than you think and not getting the nutrients your body needs.
