Tips for Healthier, Happier Eating

How to Plan Healthy Meals

Healthy meal planning is an important part of diabetes care. If you have diabetes, you should have a meal plan specifying what, when, and how much you should eat. Work with a registered dietitian to create a meal plan that is right for you. A typical meal plan covers your meals and snacks and includes a variety of foods. Here are some popular meal-planning tools:

1. An exchange list is a list of foods that are grouped together because they share similar carbohydrate, protein, and fat content. Any food on an exchange list may be substituted for any other food on the same list. A meal plan that uses exchange lists will tell you the number of exchanges (or food choices) you can eat at each meal or snack. You then choose the foods that add up to those exchanges.

2. Carbohydrate counting is useful because carbohydrates are the main nutrient in food that affects blood glucose. When you count carbohydrates, you simply count up the carbohydrates in the foods you eat, which helps you manage your blood glucose levels. To find the carbohydrate content of a food, check the Nutrition Facts label on foods or ask your dietitian for help. Carbohydrate counting is especially helpful for people with diabetes who take insulin to help manage their blood glucose.

3. The Create Your Plate method helps people with diabetes put together meals with evenly distributed carbohydrate content and correct portion sizes. This is one of the easiest meal-planning options because it does not require any special tools—all you need is a plate. Fill half of your plate with nonstarchy vegetables, such as spinach, carrots, cabbage, green beans, or broccoli. Fill one-quarter of the plate with starchy foods, such as rice, pasta, beans, or peas. Fill the final quarter of your plate with meat or a meat substitute, such as cheese with less than 3 grams of fat per ounce, cottage cheese, or egg substitute. For a balanced meal, add a serving of low-fat or nonfat milk and a serving of fruit.

No matter which tool you use to plan your meals, having a meal plan in place can help you manage your blood glucose levels, improve your cholesterol levels, and maintain a healthy blood pressure and a healthy weight. When you’re able to do that, you’re helping to control—or avoid—diabetes.

Learning Portion Control

Portion control is an important part of healthier eating. Weighing and measuring your foods helps you familiarize yourself with reasonable portions and can make a difference of several hundred calories each day. You want to frequently weigh and measure your foods when you begin following a healthy eating plan. The more you practice weighing and measuring, the easier it will become to accurately estimate portion sizes.

You’ll want to have certain portion-control tools on hand when you’re weighing and measuring your foods. Remember, the teaspoons and tablespoons in your silverware set won’t give you exact measurements. Here’s what goes into your portion-control toolbox:

•   Measuring spoons for ½ teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, ½ tablespoon, and 1 tablespoon

•   A see-through 1-cup measuring cup with markings at ¼, ⅓, ½, ⅔, and ¾ cup

•   Measuring cups for dry ingredients, including ¼, ⅓, ½, and 1 cup.

You may already have most of these in your kitchen. Keep them on your counter—you are more likely to use these tools if you can see them. Get an inexpensive food scale ($5–15) for foods that are measured in ounces, such as fresh produce, baked goods, meats, and cheese.

When you’re weighing meat, poultry, and seafood, keep in mind that you will need more than 3 ounces of raw meat to produce a 3-ounce portion of cooked meat. For example, it takes 4 ounces of raw, boneless meat—or 5 ounces of raw meat with the bone—to produce 3 cooked ounces. About 4½ ounces of raw chicken (with the bone and skin) yields 3 ounces cooked. Remember to remove the skin from the chicken before eating it.

There are other easy ways to control your portions at home in addition to weighing and measuring:

•   Eat on smaller plates and bowls so that small portions look normal, not skimpy.

•   Use a measuring cup to serve food to easily determine how much you’re serving and eating.

•   Measure your drinking glasses and bowls, so you know how much you’re drinking or eating when you fill them.

•   Avoid serving your meals family-style because leaving large serving dishes on the table can lead to second helpings and overeating.

•   Keep portion sizes in mind while shopping. When you buy meat, fish, or poultry, purchase only what you need for your meal.

When you’re away from home, your eyes and hands become your portion-control tools. You can use your hand to estimate teaspoons, tablespoons, ounces, and cups. The tip of your thumb is about 1 teaspoon; your whole thumb equals roughly 1 tablespoon. Two fingers lengthwise are about an ounce, and 3 ounces is about the size of a palm. You can use your fist to measure in cups. A tight fist is about half a cup, whereas a loose fist or cupped hand is closer to a cup.

These guidelines are true for most women’s hands, but some men’s hands are much larger.

The palm of a man’s hand is often the equivalent of about 5 ounces. Check the size of your hand in relation to various portions.

Remember that the more you weigh and measure your foods at home, the easier it will be to estimate portions on the road.

Controlling your portions when you eat at a restaurant can be difficult. Try to stay away from menu items with portion descriptors that are large, such as “giant,” “supreme,” “extra-large,” “double,” “triple,” “king-size,” and “super.” Don’t fall for deals in which the “value” is to serve you more food so that you can save money. Avoid all-you-can-eat restaurants and buffets.

You can split, share, or mix and match menu items to get what you want to eat in the correct portions. If you know that the portions you’ll be served will be too large, ask for a take-home container when you place your order and put half of your food away before you start eating.

Gradually, as you become better at portion control, you can weigh and measure your foods less frequently. If you feel like you are correctly estimating your portions, just weigh and measure once a week, or even once a month, to check that your portions are still accurate. A good habit to get into is to “calibrate” your portion control memory at least once a month, so you don’t start overestimating your portion sizes. Always weigh and measure new foods and foods that you tend to overestimate.