The Anatomy of a Meal

Nutrition is confusing, especially when there are so many blogs, opinions and documentaries out there with conflicting information…

The reality for most people is that it doesn’t need to be complicated.  There are tweaks that will always be made for an individual’s health concern (pre-diabetes, PCOS, pregnancy, breastfeeding, vegetarian or vegan preference…), but for the most we can keep this basic anatomy.

With every meal:

• Protein (meat, eggs, nuts/seeds, tofu/tempeh, legumes...) - ¼ plate

• Vegetable and/or fruit - ½ plate

• Complex carbohydrate (grain/bread/pasta, sweet potato, legumes, fruit, starchy vegetables) - ¼ plate

• Healthy fat (1 TBSP olive oil drizzled on top, eggs, meat, avocado, nuts/seeds, coconut oil, avocado oil…) - drizzled on top or as a topping.

You’ll notice that many of these categories overlap, and I really truly want you to strive for this in as many meals as possible. 

I’ll breakdown a few meals here:

1. Oatmeal
   To make oatmeal a complete meal, we want to add some kind of fruit and PROTEIN/FAT. The protein could be nuts/seeds, egg whites, protein powder… If you’re choosing the protein powder or egg whites then we’d want to add a little bit of healthy fat too as they don’t contain fat (this could be the milk you make it with, coconut oil, olive oil drizzle, etc.).

2. Smoothie
   To make this a complete meal you need to be adding PROTEIN (nut/seeds/tofu/protein powder/greek yoghurt) and HEALTHY FATS (nuts/seeds can double as healthy fat, or if using protein powder add 1 TBSP olive oil!)

3. Salad 
   To make this a complete meal you need to add PROTEIN, HEALTHY FATS and COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES.  Dressings are a great way to get healthy fat. Protein could be nuts/seeds, meat, tofu, chickpeas, lentils, eggs, edamame, etc.  Lentils, chickpeas and nuts/seeds could double as complex carb, but if those aren’t present add sweet potato, rice, quinoa, or a side toast!

When you start to think of your meals as these 4 categories (healthy fat, healthy protein, fruit/veg, and complex carbohydrate) it becomes much simpler!

This is something I discuss with my kids too in lunch packing, they can choose their lunch as long as we have something that fits each category.

And don’t forget the water or herbal tea or carbonated water for hydration!

To see more visuals check out Canada’s Food Guide- They’ve made some great updates a few years ago to support the idea of a balanced plate!

And if you need help building your own food plan, book a visit today using the button below!