Build a balanced plate

What you need to do

At dinner every night this week, build the plate this way: half vegetables (or fruit and beans), a quarter protein, a quarter starch like potatoes, rice, or whole-grain bread. No weighing. Just look at the plate.

Options that work

• Roast a sheet pan of vegetables with olive oil on Sunday and reheat all week
• Frozen vegetables, microwaved, count completely
• Bagged salad plus a can of beans is a legal half-plate
• Soup or stew: make the vegetables two-thirds of the pot
• Eating out: order the vegetable side instead of the fries, and start with the salad

Part of the fundamental Half the plate plants.

Why this works

This is the diabetes plate method, and it works for everyone [71]. Filling half the plate with water-rich, high-fiber food lets you eat a satisfying volume for fewer calories; women who ate this way lost more weight over a year with less hunger than women who only cut fat [75]. Eating the vegetables and protein before the starch blunted the after-meal blood-sugar rise by about a third [74]. More whole grains and vegetables track with lower heart disease and lower death from any cause across 45 cohorts [58].

Sources

71. Appel 1997, DASH, N Engl J Med. A diet rich in vegetables, fruit and low-fat dairy lowered systolic blood pressure by about 11 points in people with hypertension.
75. Ello-Martin 2007, Am J Clin Nutr. Over a year, women who filled up on water-rich foods (vegetables, fruit, soup) lost more weight with less hunger than women who only cut fat.
74. Shukla 2015, Diabetes Care. Eating vegetables and protein before the starch lowered the after-meal blood sugar spike by about a third. A small study since repeated in prediabetes.
58. Aune 2016, BMJ. Across 45 cohorts, more whole grains meant lower heart disease and lower death from any cause, up to about 90 g a day.

The fridge version

One line, seven boxes. Print it and put it where you eat.

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