What goes on a Low-Carb Plate?

The Principle here is to eat whole, unprocessed foods from these groups: Quality Protein, Non-Starchy Vegetables, Real Carbohydrates (fruit, limited starchy veggies) and Healthy Fat.

That is the principle. The method is to carefully choose these foods. Hopefully you will do some research and come up with your own specifics. This chart illustrate MY low-carb plate. It is shown as an example. You can choose to follow it or some similar version of it. Or you can devise one that is different. Just make sure to make conscious choices.

Not being one to enjoy measuring and counting things I tried to make this as simple as possible. When I am planning a meal I mentally divide the plate in half.

One half contains the protein. Include the fat that comes with the protein. Meat does not have to be lean. Dairy should be full fat. (I usually choose plain whole milk yogurt). Wild cold water fish have Omega 3 fats.

The other half of the plate is for the carbohydrates. The bulk of the carbs should come from non-starchy vegetables - especially leafy greens. Be sure to include a variety of different colors when you choose your vegetables.

A smaller portion of the carbohydrates may come from a little fruit or small portions of starchy vegetables (like sweet potato, yam, parsnip, winter squash, etc. but NEVER white potatoes). Butter can be added to any of the vegetables. A homemade salad dressing can be added to any of the vegetables you choose to eat as a salad.

A liquid is shown off to the side of the plate. However, consuming it with the meal could dilute digestive juices so it is best enjoyed between meals. Choices are: filtered water, herbal tea or lemon water (juice of 1/2 lemon in a glass of filtered water with a bit of stevia). I usually drink my lemon water first thing in the morning and then wait 20 minutes for the rest of my breakfast.

Why a LowCarb Plate?

As far back as I can remember our government has been trying to tell us how to eat. First there was the "Basic 7" and then when I was in grade school in the 1940's we had the "Four Food Groups". I can remember proudly pointing out in a 4H Club demonstration that I gave how the items in my salad represented each of the groups. I got a blue ribbon for that demonstration.

When I was older and was trying to feed my own child a healthy diet, the government came out with a pyramid chart to show relatively how much food should come from each group. This was later updated when "My Pyramid" came out with a little guy running up some stairs on the side to shoe that exercise is important, too.

Finally in 2010 there was another update. This time a chart in the form of a plate to show how much of what group should comprise a healthy meal.

A closer look at these guides reveals that in all of them carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes) make up at least if not more than 75% of the total amount of food. That is a high carbohydrate diet in my book. And starting in about the 1970's the government started recommending low or non fat dairy, lean meat, limiting red meat. In other words they were telling us to limit saturated fat.

The new "MyPlate" chart came to my attention during the spring of 2011. At that point I had been researching low-carbohydrate (fruits and vegetables with no refined carbs like bread or other grains) diets. My husband and I had been following such a "diet" for a few months and were being very successful at loosing weight and he was at the same time reducing his need for insulin to control his diabetes.

Being somewhat irritated that my government was recommending the opposite of what we were finding to be of great help to us, I decided to make my own plate. This blog is a result of that effort.