The Easy Diabetes Diet Plan Cookbook - Portioning Properly

Now that you know the good from the bad, it’s time to start learning just how much of each kind of food you’re expected to eat per meal. Just like any other plate, your meals should have starch (but the good, complex carb type), protein, and greens or vegetables. To properly portion these three components, a lot of diabetics turn to the ‘create a plate’ method.

To create a plate, imagine a line right down the middle of your plate then imagine another horizontal line that goes through the left side of the plate. This leaves you with one large portion of a plate and two small portions. The largest section of the plate should be filled with non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, bok choy, or peppers. One of the small sections is for the grains and starchy food like brown rice, whole wheat bread, whole grain cereal, green peas or sweet potatoes. The other small section is for your proteins such as chicken (without the skin), salmon, shrimp, lean cuts of beef or pork, or even tofu or low fat cheese.

The ‘create a plate’ method is a pretty effective way to help you visualize just how much of each kind of food you should be eating for every meal (as long as you remember to keep the food off of the rim). But the problem with ‘create a plate’ is that it’s not very accurate. To get a more exact idea of how big your portions should be, use a digital scale or even a regular, kitchen weighing scale.

A digital scale would be ideal to use because it is more precise and it can measure small amounts that would be tough to read on a manual weighing scale. Keep these measurements in mind while preparing the recipes below. Some are made for bulk preparation and can be kept in the chiller so the recipes aren’t scaled per plate but portions should reflect the scaled portions above.

The real challenge to portioning your meals is when you eat out with your friends and family. You can’t exactly tell the restaurant to measure out your portions and to change them accordingly. But don’t start refusing to go out with friends; I say grab every change you get to hang out with great company.

In these situations, just ask for a doggy bag beforehand so that you can portion your plate yourself and save the rest for another meal. If you’re having dinner at a restaurant, you can also ask if the chef can prepare a lunch-portioned plate for you which is usually a lot less than what a dinner plate would have.

This is an excerpt from the book: The Easy Diabetes Diet Plan Cookbook