Fool Your Eyes, Change Your Plate Size
Plate Size and Portion Control
“We eat with our eyes.” You may have heard this saying before, and it is absolutely true. Before you even taste your food, just seeing it will stimulate your appetite. A helpful strategy to control portion size is to use a smaller plate. The dinner plates we are often accustomed to using are quite large, usually 12 inches across, and can encourage larger than normal portion sizes. Using a 9-inch plate is better when portioning out your meals.
Larger plate = more room → larger portion
Smaller plate = less room → smaller portion
Remember to listen to your body’s hunger/fullness cues to help gauge your hunger and choose foods that are visually appealing. Enhance your eating experience by choosing foods of different textures and bright colors.
Eat the Rainbow: Benefits of Adding Colorful Foods to Your Diet
Adding colorful foods to your plate will make your meal or snack more attractive while also providing nutrients that are essential for your body and brain to function properly. Colorful fruits and vegetables contain phytochemicals, chemical substances that give plants their natural colors and have great health benefits. For example, orange produce contains beta-carotene, a phytochemical that has great benefits on vision, immune function, and bone health. To learn more about the other phytochemicals and their benefits, click here. There are hundreds of colorful fruits and vegetables you can choose from to spruce up your plate!
Red: Strawberries, cherries, raspberries, red apples, tomatoes, red peppers
Orange: Carrots, oranges, peaches, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, pumpkin
Yellow: Pineapple, yellow squash, lemon, corn
Green: Green grapes, kiwi, avocado, spinach, zucchini, broccoli, kale, cucumbers, limes
Purple: Blackberries, blueberries, plums, grapes, eggplant, raisins
To learn more about plate size and portion control, click here.
To learn more about the benefits of eating colorful foods, click here.
For an extensive list of colorful food options, click here.