reshape your plate series – part 3 – portion sizes

The next part in our series has to do with portion sizes- if you didn’t catch the first two check them out here. So we talked last time about the difference that the plate shape has compared to the pyramid – the visual difference. With the Plate Method, portion sizes become SO easy!

The plate method covers these questions-

• What is a portion size?
• What are the number of servings per meal
• What are the number of servings per day

According to this method, if you followed it for only two meals (lunch and dinner) you would have fulfilled almost every requirement of the pyramid. And if you followed it for three – you would get all requirements done and be eating more than required.

Sometimes more the required is a good thing. Let me explain. I have been watching some food movies (Food Inc, and King Corn) and in our culture right now, most of the fruits and veggies don’t have all the nutrients they once had. Because they have been genetically changed, fruits and veggies (and I am sure meats and dairy) grow faster. When they grow faster, they don’t have enough time to mature and create the standard amount of nutrients that the food pyramid once asked us to eat. If I remember right, you have to eat at least 3 apples to get the nutrients you once had in one fully seasoned, slowly grown apple. Does that make sense? So we actually need to eat WAY more than 2-4 servings of fruits a day. We have to eat at least 6.

That seems a little hard to do! 6 servings! Imagine compounding that into every other category of food!!! So much! I know it can’t be done, you can’t eat that much, But you can pick the right foods (when you can. This is our third level and what we will be talking about next week in part 4

But still on serving sizes- I love the plate method because I love that it fits guidelines! You know how a serving of meat should be the size of a deck of cards?

When you eat, is it usually that way? I could probably say that the majority of the time, it is half your plate. Especially in a steak and potatoes restaurant? Yep! What if you are at a buffet and you have your plate (probably about 11” in diameter) in hand and you get to the meat section… how much is the right serving you ask yourself. I am sure I would probably just take some random pieces and eat them. But in the Plate Method, you know that meat needs to equal 1/4 of your plate. Done… and awesome!