6) CONTROLLING WEIGHT
i) Serving Size
Servings: typically, a serving is half a cup to a cup, that's not much! A person should use a half cup measure when doling out food to their plate. Don't pile the carbohydrates, protein, fat or ANY food on. A person should keep portions small for all but fish, green vegetables and salads. Ignoring this quantity limitation is one of the major reasons that diets fail to work. We do definitely recommend eating no more than 20 grams of carbohydrate at any one meal.
Size of Meals: a meal should consist of one or two small servings, one small serving of a protein (we would recommend largely fish or beans, white meat chicken twice a week maximum) and one serving of yellow or orange vegetables. A person can add unlimited green vegetables and salads with non-fat dressings if desired. If it is a meal for only one person there is a tendency to eat an entire package or can at one sitting. Avoid that and dole out the portions using a scale. Remember, if you have type 2 diabetes it's better to throw out food than to overeat.
One way to control portion size is to have one day a week dedicated to cooking wholesome foods, then doling them out into the small microwavable containers for consumption during the week. The cream cheese yogurt, the moroccan chicken (these two recipes are in the recipe section), homemade baked beans with onions, homemade chile, vegetables, and even fish are amenable to this apportioning. This way you're not forced to eat a whole large container of one type of food at one seating.
Snack Portions: if you eat snacks, we would recommend a small sugar free fat free yogurt cup (unfortunately only a few of the grocery chains carry this. Read the labels, most low fat yogurts contain large amounts of high fructose corn syrup), a package of turkey white meat lunch meat (99% fat free), one very small handful of nuts (nuts are very healthy and, unfortunately, very fattening), or one small fruit (no grapes, bananas, melons, cherries, prunes, pineapple, papaya, mango, raisins or dried fruit at all). The important thing is to keep snack portions limited and small.
If an individual is on insulin, the amount of carbohydrate eaten with each meal needs to be carefully controlled and synchronized with the amount of insulin, the type of insulin and with exercise. The idea is to get the proper amount of insulin into the blood stream just as the carbohydrates start to get into the bloodstream. Anyone on insulin needs to follow the advice of their doctor or other health professional very carefully. There are many types of insulin available and the timing and amount of insulin injection requires some care. It depends on the timing of carbohydrate ingestion, the type of insulin, the injection site, the body weight, and the degree of insulin resistance.
Next Chapter: 7) THE MANY WEIGHT LOSS DIETS POSSIBLE
a) Diets: Which One is the Best?
b) The "Hunter Gatherer Diet"
c) Moderation Type 2 Diabetes Diet
d) Good Diets
e) Reasonable Diets
f) Helpful Diets
g) Radical Diets
h) Diets We do not Recommend
i) Fad Diets and Pills
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