Shape Up For Summer - Tip 4 - Dinner Plates To The Rescue

26 November 2009

Ravenous, desperately starving, and a little embarrassed. That's how I'd describe my lunch-time on Monday. Normally I wouldn't be so hungry at lunch-time, but on Monday I had a small breakfast in the early hours of the morning in order to hit the overloaded motorway and get to an all-day conference in Auckland city. And my ravenous appetite set in motion a lunch-time hunt for the biggest plate...

Has Anyone Seen A Bigger Plate?

I must have sent out a subconscious hunger signal at the lunch buffet, either that or my fingering through the piles of plates was a giveaway, as a nutritionist friend asked me "do you want this bigger plate?" and held aloft a nice big white plate. With my eyes glistening and my stomach rumbling I quickly seized the big lunch plate she offered!

And I know I've blogged before about choosing smaller plates to reduce your food intake, but I can honestly say I did not apply my own advice on Monday. Still, I did save further dietary issues by loading up three quarters of my plate with salads and veges and the remaining quarter plate with ham minus the fat (and yes picking my way through the ham to find some low-fat pieces held up the hold buffet line), to which I added a small bread roll.

And why was I embarrassed? Well my well endowed lunch plate left me feeling a little self-conscious - were people judging my food intake? Anyway, my ravenous hunger far outweighed any embarrassment and I quickly scarpered with my feast.

Anyhow, this got me thinking about plates and eating and what you and I should be doing at any BBQs, buffets and Christmas parties we might end up gracing with our presence during December if we want to maintain a healthy weight.

Plates And You - Go Naked For Finger Food And Minimal For Dinner

Before you get all worried and think I've gone stark raving mad, let me explain. The food plate is a very powerful tool - numerous clinical trials have shown that the size of our plate subconsciously influences our food intake, and if you're trying to stop meaningless sessions of overeating then take a good hard look at your cold hard plate - how big is it? Is it an appropriate size for your meal? Use the following plate guidelines to guide your plate use.

Practical Plate Tips

Finger food at a party - don't use a plate. Instead make yourself pick up only one piece of finger food with a serviette, walk away from the food table and eat it. If you want more go back and get only one more piece of food. The effort of going back and forth, along with (dare I say it) the embarrassment of people seeing you wear a path back and forth to the food table, should help to decrease your intake of what are often high-fat/sugar/energy snack foods.

Snacks at home - serve on a small plate. Then you'll see how much you're really eating, thereby reducing any unconscious over-eating. For example, why is the bag of potato chips on my lap empty at the end of my favourite TV show? Enough said.

Main meals at parties and home - choose a smaller sized main meal plate. This will reduce over-eating too. Then ensure half a plate is non-starchy veges/salads, quarter plate only is starchy carbs (e.g. potatoes, kumara, rice, pasta, couscous) and a quarter plate only is meat, chicken, fish, egg or other protein source.

Desserts at parties and home - forget the bowl, choose a small bread and butter style plate (if available). This will help to prevent cases of "I only had one bowl of dessert!" when in reality the aforementioned bowl was stacked about five stories high with enough dessert to feed a small army. Try doing that with a bread and butter plate - yes its impossible and/or extremely messy. The only exception to this rule is fruit salad - use a nice wee bowl for fruit salad, but don't get any crazy ideas about loading half a pavlova on top of it when people aren't looking.

And that concludes my plate advice, all of which I will certainly be following. In particular I love the idea about avoiding plates for finger food - love it! Going to use it!

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About The Author

Jennifer Bowden Nutritionist, MSc (Dist), BSc (Hons) - Human Nutrition

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