Читать книгу Practical Carbohydrate Counting - Hope S. Warshaw - Страница 27

While it is important to encourage people to use measuring equipment at home when possible, especially as they start to count carbohydrate, it is unrealistic to expect people to continue using these tools long term. For this reason it is important to provide additional portion control tips for eating at home and away from home.

Portion control tips for purchasing food and eating food at home:

• Keep measuring equipment—spoons, cups, and a scale—in an easy-to-use location. Consider weighing and measuring foods once a week. A reasonable suggestion may be to do it over the weekend, when a person may have more time.

• Use smaller plates and bowls. Less food looks like more food on smaller plates. People are less likely to overfill smaller plates.

• Encourage people not to serve family style. Putting bowls or platters of food on the table makes it easier to overeat.

• Put the leftovers (or what should be leftovers) away before eating.

• When buying produce—fruits, vegetables, and starches—buy the small pieces or plan to cut larger ones in half.

• When buying meat, fish, or poultry, purchase the amount needed for the meal, rather than too much. Give people examples. For instance, if a person is making hamburgers for four and wants 3-ounce cooked hamburgers, then only buy 16 ounces (1 pound) of meat. Or, if a person is buying turkey at the deli to make four sandwiches with 2 ounces of meat each, then buy as close to 1/2 pound as possible and make each sandwich with an equal amount of turkey.

Portion control tips for eating foods at a restaurant:

• Educate people about the words on menus or menu boards that mean large portions: giant, grande, supreme, extra large, jumbo, double, triple, double-decker, king size, and super.

• Educate people to seek out portion descriptors that mean small portions: junior, single, queen, petite, kiddie, and regular.

• Encourage people not to “super-size” or purchase meal deals, as these can promote overeating unless people are sharing parts of the meal, such as French fries. Teach that value equals being able to eat a healthy, reasonably portioned meal.

• Avoid all-you-can-eat restaurants or buffets as they encourage overeating.

• Teach “menu creativity” with restaurant menus. People don’t automatically need to order a main course. They can order a soup and salad, an appetizer and soup, or a half portion. Encourage people to eat “family style” in a variety of restaurants—from American to ethnic (where it’s more common). This type of “family style” eating encourages people to eat less by ordering fewer dishes than the number of people at the table and share the fewer menu items between diners. (This style of eating is in contrast to the portion control suggestion for eating at home that encourages people not to put large bowls of food on the table for sharing, or what’s typically thought of as “family-style” service.)

• Encourage people and let them know it is okay to split, share, and mix and match menu items to get the foods they want in the portions they need.

• Show people how they can use the estimating capabilities they have gained as they have used their measuring and portion control equipment at home. Encourage the use of hand guides and well-trained eyes.

• Encourage assertiveness to ask for take-home containers, ideally at the start of the meal so the “second serving” can be put away before eating.

For further portion control education, use some of the following ideas and resources:

• Have samples of the type of measuring equipment people should have and use at home.

• Have plenty of Nutrition Facts panels from commonly eaten foods. Use these to help people determine proper portions.

• Have commonly sized bowls, plates, and cups that people have in their kitchens to show them how smaller quantities of foods look on dishes with which they are familiar.

• Use the above serving items to have people demonstrate their ability to measure foods accurately. Ask them to measure a nonperishable food, such as nuts or dry cereal, in a serving item and pour it into a measuring cup. Use a food model as an example for weighing meat or cheese.

• Use food models of fruit to demonstrate proper portions; people regularly don’t count the amount of carbohydrate in fruit correctly.

• Consider purchasing and/or gathering additional portion control resources from the following sources (all websites as of the writing of this book):

The Idaho Plate Method (www.platemethod.com)

The Portion Doctor (www.portiondoctor.com)

NASCO (www.enasco.com/nutrition)

Nutrition Counseling and Education Services (www.ncescatalog.com)