Eating Healthier, Plate by Plate

New Year, New You

You don’t need to count calories or follow difficult diets to eat healthy, when the USDA and Harvard Medical School have handy tools that show you what your body needs daily. But if even daily seems too hard to get a handle on, take your eating habits plate by plate.

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The Harvard Eating Plate is

• 2 handfuls of Vegetables, or 1 handful of Vegetables and 1 handful of Fruit

• 1 handful of Protein

• 1 handful of Whole Grains

If you eat a balanced plate every meal, by the end of the day, you’ve likely reached what the upgraded Food Pyramid calls a balanced diet. Even when your taste buds crave a meat or you’ve been thinking about a bean dish all day, make every plate beautiful with vegetables and fruits of every color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

You can find a full list of fruits and vegetables here. Toss 3-4 together, with nuts, a bit of olive oil or your favorite dressing and you can always have a side salad with every meal.

The Food Pyramid even includes how much exercise you should have a week. Taking a ten minute walk after your meals is the best way to help your digestion along and move away from food the moment you know you've had enough. Studies have shown that walking after dinner is more helpful for people with Type 2 Diabetes than exercising at any other time.

Here are some ideas for plates that the whole family can enjoy:

• Christy Jordan buys groceries twice a month and saves more money.

• Jenny Everett gives working moms easy plates to make kids happy.

• World’s Healthiest Foods list meals and snacks for every ingredient in your kitchen.

#eatinghealthy #exercise #healthyplate