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Portion Control = Blood Sugar Control
Portion Control = Blood Sugar Control

A nutrition plan for controlling blood sugars and lowering BMI for female Antara Members

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Written by Antara Health Navigation
Updated over 3 years ago

The Benefits Of Better Portions:

  1. Reduced risk of serious health problems from Diabetes and High BMI

  2. Feeling better and having more energy

  3. Building up your body the right way

How Portions Affect Our Blood Sugar and BMI:

The portions, quality, and timing of meals greatly affect how our body controls blood sugar (blood glucose) as well as our metabolism, weight, and Body Mass Index (BMI).

  • An ongoing healthy lifestyle is the key to achieving your health goals. The fastest and easiest way to do that is to commit to eating healthy portions!

When we eat, our body digests food to release energy in various forms, one of them being glucose. We mostly get glucose from energy-giving foods (carbohydrates) such as breads, ugali, potatoes, chapati, mandazi and rice.

Too much energy-giving foods on our plate means our body gets:

  • Large amounts of glucose in the blood which leads to poor blood sugar control

  • Excess energy which will be stored as fat & lead to weight gain

How to permanently change your diet for the better:

Serve Yourself A Better Plate Of Food

Eating fewer carbohydrates and getting more fibre from fruits and vegetables helps to slow down digestion and regulate the amount of blood sugar released. Here's a guide to how to build a better plate of food:

  • ¼ plate of a high fibre energy-giving food (high fibre carbohydrate) - whole grains, cereals, wholemeal flour products like ugali wa kusaga or brown chapati flour, cassava or arrow roots.

  • ¼ plate of a body-building food (protein) - lean meats, chicken, fish, beans, milk, eggs, or nuts and nut products.

  • ½ plate of a protective food (vitamins & minerals) - vegetables and fruits like apple, tangerine and avocado.

Healthier Portions:

A “Handy” Guide To Portions: You can use your fist as a guide to how much food you should eat. See how to do this below:

Don’t Forget To Snack Smart: If you get hungry before your next meal, don’t starve yourself! Instead eat a small, healthy snack. This will prevent you from overeating in your next meal. Examples of healthy snacks include: fruits, low-fat yoghurt, low-fat milk, unsalted nuts, sweet potato, arrowroot, porridge (uji), bone or vegetable soup.

  • Antara can direct you to various mobile applications that will help you track your calories throughout the day. See some examples HERE.

  • You can also get a customized meal plan developed through your Antara nutritionist. Schedule an appointmentHERE.

Here’s how you can get started:

Try to create a habit of eating healthy portions of all food groups each day. Here’s an example of how you can do this in a daily meal plan:

Breakfast (7 am)

  • 1 cup of low-fat milk or 1 cup diluted milk (plain, tea or coffee)

  • 2 to 3 slices of wholemeal bread

  • 1 egg or 1 tablespoon peanut butter

  • 1 medium piece of fruit

Snack (10 am)

  • 2 tablespoons of nuts

Lunch (1 pm)

  • Ugali (size of your closed fist)

  • Lean beef cubes (3 pieces, each the size of a small matchbox)

  • 2 handfuls of cooked leafy green vegetables

Snack (4 pm)

  • 1 medium piece of fruit

Dinner (7 pm)

  • Rice (size of your closed fist)

  • Beans stew (½ cup)

  • 1 handful of raw vegetables

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