Often, when people are diagnosed with diabetes, they don’t know where to begin. One way is to change the amount of food you are already eating. Focus on filling your plate with non-starchy vegetables and having smaller portions of starchy foods and meats.
Creating your plate is an easy way to get started with managing blood glucose levels. You don’t need any special tools or have to do any counting. It’s simple and effective—draw an imaginary line on your plate, select your foods and enjoy your meal! Once you’ve changed your portion sizes, you can work on making healthier food choices from each food group.
6 Easy Steps to Create Your Plate
It’s simple and effective for both managing diabetes and losing weight. Creating your plate lets you still choose the foods you want but changes the portion sizes so you are getting larger portions of non-starchy vegetables and a smaller portion of starchy foods. When you are ready, you can try new foods within each food category.
Try the following 6 simple steps to get started.
- Using your dinner plate, put a line down the middle of the plate. Then on one side, cut it again so you will have three sections on your plate.
- Fill the largest section with non-starchy foods such as: spinach, carrots, lettuce greens, cabbage, bok choy, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, vegetable juice, salsa, onion, cucumber, beets, okra, mushrooms, peppers and turnips.
- Now in one of the small sections, put grains and starchy foods such as: whole grain breads (whole wheat or rye), whole grain and high-fiber cereal, cooked cereal (oatmeal, grits, hominy or cream of wheat), low-fat crackers, snack chips, pretzels, rice, green peas, pasta, corn, dahl, potatoes, lima beans, sweet potatoes, tortillas, winter squash and light popcorn.
- And then in the other small section, put your protein such as: chicken or turkey without the skin, fish (tuna, salmon, cod or catfish), other seafood such as shrimp, clams, oysters, crab, or mussels, lean cuts of beef and pork (sirloin, pork loin), tofu, egg and low-fat cheese.
- Add a serving of fruit or a serving of dairy.
- To complete your meal, add a low-calorie drink like water, unsweetened tea or coffee.
Here are some tips to get the most from your carb foods:
- Avoid sugary drinks. This includes regular soda, sweet tea, fruit punch and sports drinks. Instead, drink water or diet drinks like diet soda, sugar-free lemonade.
- Eat whole fruit instead of drinking juice.
- Choose sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.
- Try whole grain breads and whole wheat pasta instead of white bread and regular pasta.
- Eat whole grain oatmeal instead of processed cereals.
- Try brown rice or barley in soups, stews and salads instead of white rice
Care you will love.