Eating healthy is obviously not only about quality of food (type of proteins, type of grains, fresh or processed food, etc. ) but it is also about quantity. Not a surprise I guess! The best way to keep control of it, is of course to weight everything we are preparing and consuming, eventually keeping a food diary (or nutrition app) always updated. This works well in case we are dining most of the time at home and we have a scale in our kitchen. Instead, as we already said in a previous article, we are often dining outside. Definitely it is not an option to bring with us a scale or to ask the chef to cook for us a specific quantity. So, how can we ensure that we are having the right amount of nutrients without weighting everything we eat? There are few options and my favorite is visualizing what is the right portion of the main type of food you are usually consuming in your meals.
One basic rule for the beginners, which is applicable for anyone who does not follow a specific diet, is to maintain the following proportion for each meal:
1/4 of plate carbohydrates (pasta, rice, other grains, starchy veggies etc.);
1/4 of plate proteins ( meat, fish, cheeses fruits dairy, eggs, beans, tofu etc.);
1/2 tablespoons fats (oil butter of creamy cheeses);
1/2 plate veggies ( cooked or raw ).
Easy and practical!
When it comes to visualization, in my view, best thing is to take picture of right food portions defined for you and keep it in your mobile, for example in a dedicated folder. In order to do that you should at least dedicate one week in building up your own database and this shall be done with the help of a nutritionist who will support you in this process. Once you’ve got your database in your mobile, anytime you are going for lunch or dinner outside and you are concerned about the quantity of food you are going to have, you just compare the portions you get with the portions in your database. If the chef was so generous and the food you have got is too much, you can eventually take it away for later meal ( no food waste please, it is a crime!!); if you went in a cozy restaurant where the space of the plate occupied by food is not bigger than a tennis ball, you will compensate later during dinner or in your next breakfast. After a while you won’t need any more your mobile pictures, it will come automatically to compare portions since the database will be impressed in your mind.
If your phone is already saturated with pictures and you are not willing to create an extra folder, another way is to use your hands to evaluate food portion. In your hands you have all information you need. For protein quantity consider the palm of your hand, carbs make a fist, raw veggies, like a mix salad, use both palms, for fats, like butter and oil, refer to your thumb, cooked vegetables again a fist and dessert two fingers.
Obviously, again here, it is a general rule and if you are for instance, a sportive person or athlete, you will know that a hand palm of food mainly containing protein might not be sufficient and you surely have your diet already keeping into account the higher consumption of energy due to physical activity.
My personal experience: as a nutrition expert I actually know well what my body needs and in which amount but I still wanted to go deeply into my diet habits and see if I was lacking of something. I took a regular week ( no outside dinners or parties scheduled) and started recording everything I was consuming plus physical activity performed. I used the nutrition app MyFitnessPal. Indeed, I found that my protein intake was lower than it should and sugar level a bit too high. Clearly I needed to review my diet. It is impossible for me to constantly track food with those nutritional apps: I keep forgetting, I am not precise all the time, it is stressful and not nice while you are having dinner to keep typing in your phone.. therefore I used it only for a week to evaluate my status. I decided then what to increase and what to reduce.. again, as being nutritionist I can do it myself.. please do not do it yourself if you are not competent! The week after I implemented the changes and made pictures in my mind of the portions I need of the food I usually eat. Just as example, my breakfast looks like: three tablespoons of skyr with two table spoons of homemade granola or muesli and half teaspoon of pure cacao, two slides of whole grain bread with two teaspoons of honey, one banana, a full espresso cup of coffee with half espresso cup of soy/rice milk. This is for every mornings and I can easily follow those quantities while travelling if I have availability of same ingredients, without thinking in terms of grams.
If you are on a regular basis eating on the same place, like canteen at work, and you know already that they usually served too much food in one meal plus, for any reasons, you are not happy to take it away, do not be ashamed asking for a reduced quantity. The food you are not going to eat, will not be wasted in the bin!
In any cases, you should listen to your body and belly! If the body needs something, like more proteins or carbs, it will launch clear signals. We will see that in another article!
Enjoy your food!!
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