How to Use the Plate Method for Controlling Diabetes

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Brenda Thompson, registered dietitian and owner of Life Skills Nutrition. In this segment I'm going to talk about eating out and using the plate method. This is a great method to use when you're out and you are not sure how many carbohydrates or how much sodium or fat is in the food, so you can just use this as an estimation. Over here you'll see that I have a plate and in the plate method, one fourth of the plate should be filled with meats. This is a lean meat of pork with some sauce over the top. Then one fourth of the plate should contain a grain, hopefully whole grain like rice. This is pasta called Orzo. Potatoes or corn or peas is also appropriate because they are starchy vegetables. The other half of your plate should consist of non starchy vegetables like asparagus, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, a salad, tomatoes, cauliflower, any of those are appropriate. You also may want to consider having a glass of milk. This is skim milk and there is eight ounces here, this is a sixteen ounce glass but it is only full to a half to eight ounces. And then also some fruit on the side. That is the plate method. You may need to count the carbohydrates or your exchanges depending on the type of plan you have decided to control your diabetes. By rating your plate, will get you started and get you where you need to be when you are dinning out."