The Plate Method

The plate method builds a balanced meal by sight. No counting or weighing is needed. Picture your plate as a pizza in four slices.

Fill two slices with non-starchy vegetables, like green beans or broccoli. These have little starch, a carb your body turns into sugar. Fill one slice with protein, like fish, eggs or chicken. Fill the last slice with carb foods, like rice or potatoes.

A plate seen from above, split like a pizza in four slices, with a glass of water and a blood sugar meter beside it. On a balanced plate, vegetables fill half, chicken a quarter and bread a quarter, and the meter sits low. With too much carbs, the bread spreads over the space for the vegetables and the meter rises high.

Choose water or an unsweetened drink to go with your meal. Unsweetened means the drink has no added sugar, so it adds none to your meal. Some medicines affect blood sugar. If you take one, ask your care team how meal changes fit with it.

Side-by-side columns pairing common foods with easy swaps, like soda and water or white rice and brown rice.

Key takeaways

• Half of the plate holds non-starchy vegetables.
• Protein and carb foods each take one quarter.
• Water or an unsweetened drink completes the meal.

Try it

Before your next meal, check whether half your plate holds non-starchy vegetables.