A Healthy Plate - What 'Should' You Be Eating?
We’ve all thought it… that old question that pops up from time-to-time and creates doubt…what ‘should’ I be eating?! Don’t question yourself - eat food that fuels you and nourishes you and avoid/reduce foods that don’t. Stick with wholefoods, and avoid packaged, additive and sugar-loaded food. Keep it simple and learn to eat intuitively. Let me help unpack that…
As I mentioned, in detail in my 5 Pillars of Health (the foundations of good health), switching to a nutrient-dense lifestyle makes sense; it’s how our bodies were designed to eat; to breakdown protein, fats and carbohydrates. You think about how your great-grandmother ate - there wasn’t packaged, sugar and additive loaded food in abundance! Our cells haven’t evolved with time and science; we need to ease the load on our gut and liver and eat foods that we can breakdown, absorb and eliminate, effectively.
We can wave good-bye to calorie counting and overthinking the ‘right’ foods to eat. We can get back to basics and learn about macronutrients and portion sizes, so we can naturally start eating intuitively.
To start, there’s three strategies within nutrition that I teach patients:
Macronutrients
Portion sizes
“Crowding out” method
Macronutrients
Nutrition is energy for our body; the food we eat provides us with three macronutrients: fat, protein and carbohydrates, which enables us to thrive. Our body’s can’t produce these macronutrients, it must come from our diet. Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are found within your macronutrients.
The typical Australian diet has high amounts of carbohydrates (sugar), which is a key contributor to blood sugar imbalances, insulin resistance and eventually type II diabetes, and other chronic diseases.
93% of Australian’s don’t eat the recommended daily intake of vegetables, so what this means is our macronutrients are off. We’re not eating food that fuels us.
We’re eating 2-3 x more carbohydrates (sugar) than is recommended. We tend to over-do carbohydrates and opt for fast-release carbohydrates, which means they’re released into the bloodstream quickly and don’t sustain us, such as pasta, bread and sugar.
Portion Sizes & A Healthy Plate
My first solution for changing how you eat is to focus on macronutrients and portion sizes, and has 3 steps to make up a healthy plate:
Eat 2-3 serves of vegetables with each main meal (this can include starchy veggies, such as potatoes, pumpkin, peas and carrots). Aim for at least 1 green per meal
Eat a palm-size portion of protein with each meal, such as eggs, quinoa, organic/free-range chicken or meat, nuts, seeds, fish, seafood etc.
Eat a serve of fat at each meal, such as ⅓ avocado, 1 TBSP olive oil or a handful of nuts and seeds
If you feel like incorporating a complex grain into your meal, you can! My preferred sources are complex and high-fibre grains, such as rice, oats, millet, quinoa etc. Best not to overdo the grains, stick with 1-2 serves per day, unless you have specific health goals/challenges, such as weight loss, muscle gain, cancer, etc. then your intake and macronutrients will vary.
By eating these three macronutrients in healthy ratios/portions at each meal you’ll help regulate hormones, fight inflammation, modulate immunity, promote healthy weight management, reduce sugar cravings, regulate blood sugar levels and energy and support digestion, absorption and elimination.
Crowing Out Method
The “crowding out” method is such a brilliant concept that I heard about when I was studying nutrition. Essentially, when you focus on all the foods you want to be on your plate, naturally some of the foods you used to eat will be crowded out. Get your macronutrients on the plate and the processed, high-sugar foods will start to disappear.