Hi! I am Missy Creed, a librarian from the Library for Health Information, or the LHI.
The LHI is a consumer health library located in the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in
Columbus Ohio. The LHI provides free, reliable, easy to understand health resources for medical
center patients, their families and the community. Medical center clinicians can also refer patients
to the LHI if patients are interested in finding more information on their own about their
health diagnoses. Today, the LHI is highlighting diabetes.
We are chatting with Jenny Shrodes from the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center’s Diabetes
and Metabolism Research Center. Jenny is a diabetes educator. I'm going to let Jenny
introduce herself, the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center, and maybe share an interesting
fact about herself. Jenny? Hi, thanks for having me today. I'm Jenny
Shrodes, and I am a diabetes educator for the outpatient care at Ohio State. And an
interesting thing about myself is that I've cooked in the Culinary Institute of America
Kitchens in Hyde Park, and I won first place in a cooking contest. Wow, congratulations!
Thank you!
Let's talk about using your plate to eat healthy.
Could you tell us about some of the guidelines for what the "Plate Method" is?
We like to divide the plate into thirds, just like the peace sign.
And in one third we'll fill that with non-starchy vegetables, and another third,
we'll fill that with lean protein, and the last third, we fill that with starchy food.
Could you give us some examples of what a starchy and a non-starchy vegetable is?
I sure can. There are more non-starchy vegetables than starchy. So we'll just
say that starchy vegetables pretty much include potatoes, peas, corn, and some winter squash,
like butternut or acorn. All the other vegetables are pretty much non-starchy,
so we're talking about broccoli, cauliflower, onions, all greens, and the list goes on and on.
Trying to determine the sugar, or added sugar, in a food can be tricky.
Can you talk about food labels, and the importance of reading the food labels?
When we're talking about what affects blood sugar,
we really look first at the serving size and actually measuring the food, so that you know
what that label means. And then looking at total carbohydrates. Whenever you see the
word "total" on the label, you know that there are pieces and parts that make up that total.
And on the food label below Total Carbohydrates, you will see Dietary Fiber, Sugar, and now you'll
see Additional Sugar. So if there's sugar that's added to that product that didn't naturally occur
in the product, it's going to be listed there. The sugar and the dietary fiber can tell us,
or indicate maybe to us, how quickly our blood sugar will rise after eating the food.
You talked a little bit about serving size.
Can you give us an example or some good rules to follow if you don't have a measuring cup?
A fist is about a cup. If you open up that fist, then the palm of your hand and about
a half an inch thick, indicates about three to four ounces of meat. And if you're talking
teaspoon and tablespoon measurements, you can use the end of your thumb, from the knuckle down,
to indicate a teaspoon of food. One large egg is one ounce. And so if you can think about something that
you know the measurement and relate it to what you're eating, that might be helpful.
Great tips!
Thanks so much to Jenny Shrodes for joining me today. For more information about the Diabetes
and Metabolism Research Center, please call 614-688-6251.
To obtain copies of some diabetic-friendly recipes, please contact the LHI.
For more information and free handouts on diabetes, please contact the Library for Health
Information at health-info@osu.edu. To learn more about the Library for Health Information,
please visit our web site at go.osu.edu/hsl-lhi.
See you next time!