MyPlate

What is MyPlate: This is a graphic that aims to help anyone, especially younger children to build a meal that contains the proper amounts of certain foods.  The plate is meant to be a 9” in diameter plate.  This is important because if people are using plates that are too large, the ratio of foods can get skewed.

Components of MyPlate: MyPlate contains 5 different groups (ask the kids to give examples of something you could eat in each group)

Vegetables—The largest group. Make sure you are eating from the rainbow including a lot of colors (don’t forget white!)  The more colors that you eat, the more nutrients you will get.

Fruit- It may not seem like the easiest thing to eat at a meal like dinner, but fruit is naturally sweet and it can be delicious mixed into vegetables.

Whole Grains- Make sure starchy sides you have with dinner like pasta and rice are whole grain varieties.  Try grains you never have like quinoa, bulgur and couscous.

Lean Protein- This one is important because it is usually the one that people make too big.  We think that meat has to be the biggest part of our meal, but that actually is not the case.  Keep your meat serving the size of a deck of cards.

Low-fat dairy- Whether it is a glass of low-fat milk on the side of any meal, some low-fat yogurt with fruit as your after dinner dessert, or a piece of low-fat cheese in your sandwich, dairy gives you calcium which you need for strong bones.

“Volumizing”—Not Just for Your Hair!

One of the first things that I’m sure you think of when it comes to being healthy is that you should probably cut down on the amount of foods you eat.  Depending on the types of food you are consuming, this does not need to be true!  By adding volume to your diet, you can actually increase the amount of food that you eat, while also adding more vitamins and nutrients to your diet.

The term that is the key to portion control and balancing consumption of certain foods is “energy density.”  Energy density refers to whether the calories in one serving of a food is very high or very low.  The more calories per serving the more energy dense something is.  You would figure this out by dividing the number of calories per serving by the number of grams one serving is.  If something’s energy density falls between 0-1.5, it is low in energy density, if it is 1.5-4.0 it is medium, and 4.0-9.0 is high in energy density.

In order to maximize the amount you eat, you want to choose more foods from the low energy density group because you can eat more of them for less calories or “energy.”  If you wanted to eat one serving of plain, vanilla ice cream that would be ½ cup and roughly 150 calories.  Yet if you wanted to eat more, you could eat 2 cups of berries with whip cream for the same amount of calories.  That’s 4x the amount of food for an equal amount of calories plus a lot more fiber and nutrients.

Here are some easy ways to add volume to your meals:

Breakfast: If you like oatmeal, cereal or yogurt to start your day, add fruit, nuts and seeds to fill you up and start your day great.  If you have a little more time in the morning, add vegetables to your omelets.

Lunch: If you prefer to have a sandwich, instead of loading it up with cold cuts, use spinach, slice veggies, use spreads such as hummus or avocado instead of mayonnaise and cheese.  If you are making a salad, use beans and nuts to make it more filling instead of fried proteins or other energy dense toppings.

Dinner: Still want pasta?  Go for it! But instead of piling it on your plate, shred zucchini with your vegetables peeler into spaghetti like strands, or better yet, hollow out spaghetti squash which looks exactly like the pasta.  Sautée it in garlic and oil and toss with your pasta dish.  If you like mashed potatoes, use roasted or boiled cauliflower in place of half the potatoes.  Blend or mash them together and you will lower the calories and up the nutrient content!

Eating healthy does not need mean eating less!  Use energy density to help you understand portion control and you’ll be full and feeling great!  Let us know about any meals you volumize this week!