Rate Your Plate

A quick way to make sure your child is eating a variety of healthful foods at each meal is to play "Rate Your Plate." When you sit down for a meal, draw a couple of imaginary lines to divide your child's plate. About one-fourth of his or her plate should be filled with carbs. Another fourth should be protein -- foods like meat, fish, eggs, cheese, or tofu. That leaves half of your child's plate to fill with vegetables and salad. Then you can add a small roll or slice of bread and your child is ready to eat! Of course, you need to be sure to count the carbohydrates or exchanges in your child's meal so you can be sure her insulin and exercise are on target. But "rating your plate" will give your child a good, balanced meal with plenty of  nutrients, vitamins, and minerals!

Play the interactive "Rate Your Plate" game in the Diabetes Learning Center now!

Portion Sizes

One of the keys to meal planning with diabetes is portion sizes. It's easy to say there are about 48 carbs in a serving of macaroni & cheese. But how big is that serving? The box says it feeds four people. But lots of people eat the whole box all by themselves. So how do you know? For starters, you flip the box over and take a look at the Nutrition Facts on the back.

So, you've got your mac & cheese, and now you know that a serving is a cup. Do you now have to get out a measuring cup every time you eat? Well, no, but it's helpful to start. For the first few months, you probably will want to use a measuring cup (or spoon, or a scale) to measure portions whenever you can. Then after a while you'll get used to seeing one portion in your bowl. You'll know that one portion of cereal goes halfway up the inside of your bowl. Or covers Daffy Duck's head. Or is about the size of your fist. You get the idea. Then after a while, you'll be able to eye those portions just about anywhere.

Here are a few "eyeball" portion measures to get you started:

A serving of	Measures ...	And is about as big as ...
Cheese	1 ounce	Four dice
Rice	½ cup	Half a baseball
Bagel	4 ounces	A hockey puck
Meat	3 ounces	A deck of cards
Peanut butter	2 Tablespoons	A ping-pong ball
Pasta	1 cup	A tennis ball