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diet Archives | Precise Portions ®

Stacy
In Eating Healthy, Healthy Eating, Healthy Eating Habits, Portion Control

Diabetic Portion Control Plate

A diabetes portion control plate is an important tool in the management of diabetes – whose complications are among the leading causes of death and morbidity. While these plates are important in the management of type 2 diabetes, they also have a role in the management of the type 1 (that depends on insulin therapy). In addition to these; people in the pre-diabetes phase and the obese can all reap health benefits from using the precise portion plates.

Many people with type 2 diabetes are also obese. Therefore reducing weight by the use of  a diabetic portion plate not only promotes better sugar control in the body , but also helps to keep it at bay for those at an increased risk due to obesity.

The benefit of using diabetic portion control plate
Smaller, healthy portions support good insulin metabolism and prevents insulin resistance – a significant factor in the development of type 2 diabetes.

How to plan your diabetic portion control plate
There are two ways.

  1. Use an ordinary plate

Draw 2 imaginary lines on your plate. One line divides the plate into two halves. The other divides one half into two to make 3 sections.

  1. Section 1 – half of the plate is filled with non-starchy vegetables such as cauliflower and carrots.
  2. Section 2 – a quarter of the plate should contain lean proteins like tuna and turkey
  3. Section 3 – the last portion to contain starchy foods such as whole grain products or tubers such as potatoes.

    2. Use of a precise diabetic portion control plate

This removes the guesswork from the portions you eat. Many types are available including kids-friendly products. You can find more information about these here. For a variety of diabetes portion control plates and related products see these.

 

Stacy
In Eating Healthy, Healthy Eating, Portion Control

Diet Plates for Portion Control

What are diet plates for portion control?

These are plates with information printed on it about various servings for dinner. Other types of dishes are designed for cereals. These have printed differently sized guiding lines that correspond with the size of particular amounts of dry cereals.

Diet plates for portion control are perhaps the best tools to ascertain that you manage your weight effectively. People looking to reduce or maintain a healthy weight soon find out that it is not easy to maintain controlled food portions without an accurate reminder of how much of each type of food they are supposed to take. Sticking to the use of a diet portion plate consistently and accurately determines more than just what goes into your mouth.

What a diet portion control plate achieves

These include:

    1. The amount of food you eat. Here referred to as portions
    2. Helps you to regulate the foods you eat
    3. For people with blood sugar control problems, they enjoy better control and more energy throughout the day.
    4. Helps you to know the amount of calories you are taking in.
    5. Guides you in eating a balanced diet
    6. It removes the hassle of measuring food quantities by weight

Is there an ideal food portion plate?

The market offers a wide range of dieting portion plates. Choose one that you find easy to understand. Look for the type that gives you as much information as possible without confusing you. A plate with a wide range of food names printed in each section is better that one with a few or general groups of foods. The former helps people with different education backgrounds do better in their healthy eating efforts.

Does it work?

In a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity of 2006, it was found that smaller food portions topped the 5 best weight loss measures usually taken by different people. So diet plates for portion control are important tools in weight management efforts. See how it works and the various types here.

Lorena Casillas
In Uncategorized

Detox diets, the good, the bad and what you should know

What you should know:
What is a detox diet?
It is a type of diet consisting in the consumption of shakes and smoothies made of fruits, vegetables, and herbs used for a certain time with the belief that you can get health benefits.

Before this trend started the word detox was related to medical practices to refer cases of alcoholism, drug addiction and poisoning that put lives at risk.
Nowadays the term detox is used to refer home methods that claim can eliminate swelling, headaches, joint pain, weight loss, reduce fatigue and even depression. None of the products require a prescription.

 

The bad
The popularity of detox diets has grown exponentially recently, however, there is little evidence that detox diets remove toxins from the body. Our kidneys and liver are responsible for filtering out most toxins.

People usually express that they lose weight by following these diets and this occurs because they consume fewer calories than their bodies need. Unfortunately there is no institution that regulates the term detox.
Detox diets should not be followed for long periods of time because they do not provide enough amounts of protein, and can cause vitamin deficiency, minerals and essential fatty acids.

Some stricter followers even recommend the use of enemas (colon cleansing) but repeated use of these can cause an electrolyte imbalance.
Due to the increasing popularity of this term, many companies admit that they have changed the names of products we already know for “detox” or “cleansing” to increase sales.

 

The good
Detox diets basically eliminate the consumption of highly processed foods which are high in sugar, salt, unhealthy fats, additives, and preservatives. The use of many of these ingredients is widely debated due to health problems resulting therefrom, such as obesity, diabetes and much more.
Detox diets also encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Most people do not consume even half of the daily recommendation of 5 servings a day (3 vegetables and 2 fruits).

Only one shake or smoothie can provide those 5 portions easily and if is not strained it can also provide a good amount of fiber.

 

Conclusion
The consumption of smoothies and shakes can be part of a healthy life if you follow a personalized diet and exercise regularly.

Before starting a program of this inquiry ask your dietician or healthcare provider.

Precise Portions
In Tuesday Tips, Uncategorized

Tools for Healthier Eating: Try an Herb Garden

Fresh herbs can make the plainest meal appear gourmet instantly, but fresh herbs do more than enhance appearance. Fresh herbs are a fantastic tool to make your eating both more flavorful and healthier. Because of herbs’ hearty nature, even gardeners with the brownest thumbs can tackle an herb garden. Whether you have acres of land or just a small windowsill, you can successfully plant your own thriving herb garden. All you need is a little time and some potting soil!

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Precise Portions
In Tuesday Tips, Uncategorized

Tools for Healthy Eating: Try an Immersion Blender

If you have browsed through Pinterest or turned on a daytime talk show lately, you probably know how popular professional grade blenders have come. While these blenders are fantastic for making healthy foods, they aren’t always practical for every budget, nor are they always easy to quickly pull out to make a fast and healthy meal. Whether a fancy full size blender is not for you, or just not helping you meet your healthy eating goals all the time, there is an answer for you!

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Claire
In Thoughtful Thursday, Uncategorized

Copy the healthiest people in the world

Over the years, there have been many so-called nutrition experts advising us how to lose weight. Think Tim Noakes. Robert Atkins. Pierre Dukan. And like lambs to the slaughter, we have blindly followed their sometimes very self-serving sermons. And then paid the price. It’s hard to cut through the crap. Especially when we’ve been groomed to obey the medical fraternity without question. But we only have to look to the world’s healthiest people, and those who live the longest with the least amount of health issues, to discover the truth about how we really should be eating and living.

Where are the world’s healthiest people?

Dan Buettner learned that the healthiest – and longest living people in the world – live in:

  • Okinawa in Japan
  • Sardinia in Italy
  • Nicoya in Costa Rica
  • Icaria in Greece
  • The Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, California

Marge Jetton, who died at the age of 106, was a Seventh-day Adventist who lived in Loma Linda, California. It’s interesting to note that the Seventh-day Adventists in California live on average 5 – 8 years longer than other Californians. Now I bet you’re thinking that living longer is all very well and good, but so what right? Who wants to live longer than eighty anyway? The thing is, these people – in fact, all the people in what’s been termed the “Blue Zones” – not only live longer, but their quality of life is so much better than elsewhere in the world, so that they live with vibrancy. Take Marge as an example. Just before her death, she was still walking a mile every day, lifting weights and stayed busy volunteering in her community. Her life remained rich and healthy until the end.

How to live longer, happier and healthier

So what’s different about the healthiest people in the world? What are they doing that the rest of us should copy if we want longevity and vibrant health until death we do part? It’s not about that one superfood that us westernized people put our hopes on to cure all our health woes and make us lose weight. They don’t take the pills our doctors recommend to make their bones strong. They don’t put their faith in one herb or one fruit or one vegetable. And they don’t shop at the mass stores the rest of the world favors. Stores that stock mass produced genetically modified, pesticide sprayed crops preserved as food and packaged conveniently in tins and boxes. For the people in the Blue Zones, their longevity and health can be attributed not to one thing, but rather to a combination of:

  • Exercise (their lifestyles are naturally more active than ours).
  • Diets that are completely natural (95% of their diets are plant-based and only a scant 5% is meat).
  • Getting lots of rest.
  • Having plenty of sex.
  • Drinking natural preservative-free wine.
  • Caring about their communities and family-oriented.
  • Belief in a higher power.
  • They are far less stressed than the rest of the world.

How you can copy the healthiest people in the world

  • Exercise more. You don’t have to go to gym, but you do need to move regularly, and also do some type of weight bearing exercises which helps make your bones strong.
  • Eat more plant based, natural whole foods.
  • Seriously limit the amount of meat you eat, including chicken and fish. Many of the Blue Zone people eat a completely vegetarian diet, with meat only on special occasions.
  • Limit your dairy intake.
  • Enjoy sex with your spouse. Do it often and wholeheartedly.
  • Believe in God. Marge Jetton emphasized this as one of the reasons she lived so long and stayed so healthy.
  • Care about your family and community. Volunteer your help where needed.
  • Limit your stressors. Learn how to handle what stresses you, or change your circumstances.

Conclusion

Vibrant health is simple and affordable. Contrary to what we are being brainwashed into, longevity does not come in a pill. When a so-called nutritional expert tries to complicate health, you have to ask yourself why, and what they stand to benefit from their advice. Most importantly, if you’re tempted to be taken in by the empty promises of a nutritional guru or professor or doctor, always do your homework first. Look for the answers from the people who actually live longer and stay healthier and you won’t go wrong.

Precise Portions
In Give It A Try, Uncategorized

Pomegranate Seeds

Their beautiful appearance means that pomegranate seeds are often featured as a garnish on dishes in food photography, but pomegranate seeds are far more than just a pretty food topper. Those tiny pomegranate seeds are actually loaded with loads of free radical fighting antioxidants, vitamins, and polyphenols.

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Precise Portions
In Tuesday Tips, Uncategorized

Tools for Healthier Eating: Harnessing the Power of Technology

Without question, technology has permeated every aspect of our lives these days. And while technology’s presences brings with it both pros and cons, when it comes to living a healthier lifestyle technology or website tool Plagiarism Checker can definitely be a powerful tool to enlist in making healthier eating easier than ever before.

  1. Do Some Quick Research on the Go. Headed to try a new restaurant? Having a hard time making a decision on what to purchase at the grocery store? You hold the tool you need in the palm of your hand on your smartphone. Use the internet to quickly search for the healthiest menu options at a particular restaurant, find out potential allergens in dishes, or download different free apps to get ratings on the healthfulness of items found in your grocery store.
  2. Create an Electronic Food Journal.  Food journals are an excellent means to work towards healthier eating, but they only work if you actually use them! (link to previous post on food journals?) Increase your odds of keeping up with your food journaling by using a notes feature on your phone or tablet to log the details of your food intake. Since your phone or tablet is likely with you most of the time you’ll be more likely to have a more likely to quickly enter your data and thus have complete journal than if you are constantly forgetting to tote a cumbersome notebook around with you all the time.
  3. Keep Up with Grocery Lists. If you are like most people, the times you when most often give into the temptation of buying junk food at the grocery store is when you shop without a list to give you guidance. Create your list electronically, store it on your phone, and you’ll never be without your list again.
  4. Find Tried and True Healthy Recipes. If you are new to healthy eating you may be wondering where to start. While you could invest in stacks of expensive and space consuming books you may or may not like, the internet has plenty of recipes for you to try out, all with just the click of your mouse. Whether you are aiming for a vegan diet, gluten free diet, Paleo diet, or just want to eat more nutritious meals, you’ll have plenty of resources at your fingertips. Even better, you can also find reviews, comments, and modifications from other healthy cooks to save you from making missteps.
Precise Portions
In Discovering New Foods Wednesday, Uncategorized

Give It a Try: Salad for Breakfast

Salad has traditionally earned its keep by being a go-to choice for lunch or dinner, but it has generally not been part of the scene on the breakfast table.  We are here to tell you, if you have been limiting salad to the latter part of the day, it’s time you give this healthy and versatile meal a prominent place on your breakfast regime! Need convincing? Here’s why a salad just may be the perfect breakfast choice:

  1. Super Easy. Traditional breakfast items like eggs and meats lend themselves beautifully to quickly and easily being tossed on a salad—no recipe required! Chop a boiled egg (or try topping it with a fried egg!), slice some avocado, and dice your favorite breakfast meat (or any leftover meat you may have around), and you instantly have a healthy and filling breakfast.
  2. Green Smoothie Alternative.  Despite their popularity and health advantages, green smoothies just don’t appeal to everyone. Others may enjoy green smoothies, but wish to have a little more variety in their breakfast menu. Either way, a salad at breakfast is a terrific alternative to get spinach, kale, and other greens into your body first thing in the morning—no straw required!
  3. Gives You a Little “Insurance” When the Day Gets Hectic. Even with the best of intentions, the day can sometimes get away from us, leaving us short on getting in as many veggies as we need for the day. By starting your day with greens topped with other veggies, you give yourself a head start on your nutrient intake and a little added insurance on getting in all the veggies you need each day.
  4. Versatile and Customizable. Another benefit of creating a yummy salad for breakfast is that you don’t have to follow any specific recipe or stock a long list of particular ingredients. Start with your greens, add a protein, toss in additional veggies and/or fruits, and a healthy fat and you’re set to go to make a breakfast as unique as you are.
  5. Impressive. It may be hard to believe with as simple as they are, but making a large breakfast salad is quite an impressive dish to make for the next brunch you host. The vibrant colors of different fruits and veggies makes for a beautiful presentation, the ingredients are perfect to make in large quantities, and the nature of the recipe makes it easy to individualize with the addition or subtraction of particular ingredients based on people’s food allergies or preferences.