Today we're talking about the plate style of eating. And I really like this style of
eating because it's for when you go out to dinner, or you go to a
friend’s house, and you don’t have a lot control over the food that you’re eating
in terms of preparation, but you really want to make an overall
healthy plate without too much thought. This is what you do, the plate method is great
for just making healthy eating really really easy. So first
let’s take a look at a plate that’s kind of a typical American plate. Right, so we
have a big serving of protein here, a lot of carbohydrates, and
then maybe vegetables here on the side kind of as an afterthought right. And that’s
typically how we prepare meals. We first think protein, then
carbohydrates, and vegetables kind of take a backseat.
Usually we have this type of plate along with another big serving of carbohydrate in terms
of fluffy white bread, and usually this isn't the most
nutritious way to eat. As you can see we’re really lacking a lot of color here, we have
a very beige plate. So the plate method really changes all
that, and moves vegetables to the forefront where they really should be. So the plate
method is exactly this. You want to take your plate, and in
your mind you want to think about cutting your plate in half, and one half into two
quarters. So, on half your plate you want to fill it
up with vegetables, the brighter the color, the deeper the color the better. And also
think about having a lot of different colors. That makes sure
that you’re getting a lot of vitamins, lots of different types that you need.
Think about protein as being almost a side size, about 3 ounces, 3 to 4 ounces. And here
you really want to think lean protein, so you want to think
things like chicken, white meat preferably, no skin, turkey, fish that’s not breaded
and fried. Those are probably your top. And then another sort of side dish portion,
you want carbohydrates. And with carbohydrates you want to think about fiber, and you want
to think about high nutrition. So you want to stay away from
fluffy white things. So white bread, white rice, white potatoes, white pasta. You really
want to make any of those choices whole grain with a lot
of nutrition. So what does that actually look like? So If I look at my healthier plate using
the plate method, what you see here is you see half
of my plate is vegetables beautiful vegetables, dark greens bright reds we have orange, we
have purple. We really want to make sure that there's a lot
of nutrition going into those vegetables. And really vegetables are the first thing
you want to think about. Second thing we’re looking at is our protein,
we have a lean protein, we have turkey, and it’s in a nice small portion, about 3 ounces,
3 to 4 ounces. And then you can see our carbohydrate is a
nice side dish size. And again here we’re doing sweet potatoes instead of doing a white
potato, so again more nutrition. So it's a very easy way for me
to go to a friend’s house and eat healthy or go out for dinner, or even at home, to
really think first about the vegetables filling up half my plate, then
a small corner with the protein, a small corner with the carbohydrates. I grab my sugar free
calorie free beverage and I’m good to go. Now let's take
a look to see what Matt has in the kitchen. Hey everybody it’s Jennifer and Matt here
in the discover kitchen. And we’re talking more about the plate method and really how
you use it in terms of cooking. Remember the plate method is really
where you think about the proportions of your meal, making vegetables the main portion with
protein and carbohydrates more as a side dish. So Matt
is going to show us how we can use that not only with when we’re serving ourselves food,
but also when we’re cooking, right?
Absolutely. So what we're going to do today is show you another method of the plate method.
And so what I have here are a variety of sautéed vegetables,
here I am some romanesco broccoli, and some roasted brussel sprouts and some sautéed
red pepper. And notice the beautiful colors here, remember
we talked about with the plate method you really want to see a lot of different colors
because it means a wide range of nutrients.
And what I did here was olive oil and a little bit of garlic, and you’ve got a great flavor
and color combination there. Great. So if we were to say
here’s the plate method and we wanted to make one half of our plate vegetables, so
can load those up can’t have too many vegetables. Right and
vegetables are the first thing we’re thinking about. Absolutely!
And then for one quarter of the plate we have 4 ounces of my meat. So right here I have
some grilled up chicken. Put that here, perfect. OK. And
then for starch or carbohydrate you can do a whole grain brown rice, or some sweet potatoes.
In this case we've got whole grain pasta. Alright I’ll
put that in right here. And that’s one cup cooked of carbohydrates. That’s a portion
for one meal. And remember when we're talking about carbohydrates
we're thinking fiber. We’re thinking lots of fiber, so no white stuff. No white potato,
no white rice, no white bread. Now the reason I’m doing this is
to show you that not every meal is like this. For instance this is my favorite pasta primavera
dish, actually that’s been deconstructed. I’ve got my
vegetable, my protein, my carbohydrate. But when people go home and they start making
pasta dishes, they think as pasta as being the main, the main component of the dish right.
And it’s very overwhelming, typically it’s way more
than a cup so this gives you an idea of what a pasta dish might look when it’s been deconstructed.
So what I’m going to do is I’m actually going
to take this plate and I’m going to toss it in a bowl. OK And then what we can do is
stir it around, mix it up. You know sometimes you want to get the vegetables
and the pasta and you can nicely display the protein on top, or you can cut the chicken
into smaller cubes and integrate it like I’m doing it
here. But if I’m looking at this as a pasta dish,
I don’t know if you can see that on camera, but normally in a pasta dish I think the thing
you can see the most is pasta because that tends to be
proportionally what’s the major ingredient. But in here if you’re looking your really
see the vegetable, you really see the color, you see a lot less of the protein and the
carbohydrate. Which is what we’re getting at, we're really wanting
to use that plate method for portion and proportion, for really focusing that meal on vegetables.
Right absolutely. So here it is with pasta, but if you think in say Chinese food stir
fried rice, I mean most of the time it’s predominately rice.
It’s very lacking in the protein and the vegetables
You know if it's a casserole, you have to think about what is the distribution of carbohydrates,
proteins and vegetables in that casserole, if it’s
predominately pasta or starch then that distribution isn’t really that healthy. So we have to
start paying attention to this, so that's why we brought
this example to you. So I always like giving a little drizzle of healthy olive oil you
can season with a little salt and pepper, you know you can get
it mixed around, stir it up, but then you put it on a plate, still a very nice full
pate. Great, and looks beautiful. And you've got all the components that we
had here. And to be honest with you now that I look at it here there’s still you can
still see there’s a good portion of pasta on there. But measure it
out before you put it on a plate. Yep absolutely, good point. You can use the plate method when
you’re cooking to achieve really an overall healthy
dish. It really makes those vegetables the focal point, but still enjoying your favorite
foods, your favorite pasta dishes your favorite rices,
whatever it is that you love, just making sure you’ve got the right proportions. Thanks
we'll see you soon.