Weekly Article: 

How To Create The Perfect Plate Of Food

Every time Wholly Macro receives a phone call from an interested or curious person and / or a potentially new client, we send them a series of documents and newsletters about our business and services.

You would think that we could say it all in a few words, but because we cater to everyone's individual needs, customizing our services for each and every one of you, we find that we have many versions of many informative newsletters and documents.

We have a few that are among our most frequently used informative newsletters.

One of our very favorites is called "Think Outside The Old Food Pyramid To Create The Perfect Plate Of Food".

This is the newsletter that we like to send to the beautiful new (and / or newly awakened) souls who get into contact with us here at Wholly Macro.

It speaks volumes about many topics, including, but not limited to:

• How To Create A Balanced Meal / Plate Of Food

• How to Determine The Ratio And Proportion Of The     Different Food  Groups

• How To Use The Wholly Macro Delivery Food

• How To Supplement The Wholly Macro Delivery Food With Food Of Your Own

• How To Warm Up Our (Or Your Own) Food 

• How To Substitute / Overlap The Different Food Groups

•  How To Determine How Much Food To Eat Per Meal

And on and on!

We have revised and updated it for you below.

We hope you enjoy reading it for the first time if you have never received it, or reading the new and revised addition of it even if you have!  

OLD FOOD PYRAMID

 

So what does the NEW food pyramid look like? We have provided a detailed graphic for you below. 

Most obvious is the base of the new pyramid. It is HUGE, and comprised of pretty much every food you need to eat in order to retain optimal health: Grains (mostly whole), beans / legumes, the entire vegetable kingdom, and nuts, seeds, fruits, natural plant oils, and herbs.

The base of the pyramid is the solid ground. As you move up the pyramid the food choices found there become less and less important, or should be used in far more moderate proportions than to those of the base.

Every dish that we prepare here at Wholly Macro comes completely from the base of the NEW food pyramid, including all of our desserts.

Many top research and medical facilities, Harvard Medical School included, recommend limited intake of meat, dairy, and sugar, if at all.

We are not saying that you should include meat and dairy in your diet or not. That needs to be determined on an individual basis.

We don't prepare it here at Wholly Macro because we don't want to ship it, but you are welcome to prepare it for yourself if you so choose. It is simple enough to cook a piece of fish or chicken for example, and add it to the dishes that you select from our menus.

Anyway, how does the new food pyramid translate to your actual plate of food you may be wondering?

The USDA, (United States Department Of Agriculture) releases new dietary guidelines for Americans every so often, and most recently, a new "model" has been released called MyPlate.

MYPLATE

 .

We feel that MyPlate copied Wholly Macro, except that Wholly Macro's Plate is so much more detailed and complete!! 

We don't mind that MyPlate copied us.  Imitation is the best form of flattery!

Here at Wholly Macro we have always modeled the food pyramid guidelines after a perfect plate of food, because after all, we eat from a plate, not from a triangular pyramid. 

But all joking aside, taking the food groups and proper proportions from a pyramid to a plate is a good change and makes eating properly much easier to understand.

The USDA guidelines did not change much with the transition from pyramid to plate, and we don't expect them to ever change much at this point.

They should continue to reflect the importance of a mainly plant based diet for long-term human and planetary health.

Because lets face it, plant based food is where it's at!

That IS the mainstream now.

When the NEW guidelines came out some 15 years ago it was a huge change from the old way of eating, one met with plenty of resistance, and one that still remains a source of denial for many a poor unhealthy soul. But the facts still remain: Eating a plant-based diet is best for human health.

Anyway, back to The Wholly Macro Version Of The Perfect Plate Of Food:

Please imagine your empty plate if you will.

In planning your meal, mentally divide your plate in half down the middle.

Fill one half of your plate with vegetables. Fill one quarter with whole grains, cracked grains, or a similar complex carbohydrate. Fill the other quarter with protein rich food such as beans, tofu, tempeh, seitan, fish, or good quality naturally sourced animal protein if you so choose. And voila: Your plate of food is complete.

We like to compose our plate, and then place the entire plate in a bamboo steamer on low heat to warm before serving.

The vegetable half of your plate should contain vegetables from as many varieties / vegetable groups as possible at each meal, or at least each day. Including sea vegetables. You can simply never get enough, let alone too much vegetable variety, as there are so many to choose from, each containing their own unique assortment of nutrients.

One or two grains per meal / day are enough. It is better not to eat too many different grains mixed together at each meal. It is very important to eat a whole grain (like brown rice, millet, whole barley, quinoa, etc., not bread, pasta, or cracked grains such as rolled oats, polenta, and couscous) each day, in at least one meal per day. Depending on your condition, whole grain bread, pasta, or cracked grains can be used in addition to WHOLE grains at another meal.

One protein source is enough per meal. If you have beans at a meal you do not need another protein at that same meal.

The important part to understand is that each meal should be made up of a whole grain based complex carbohydrate, a protein source, and a wide variety of vegetables, in the above balance.

Please gaze upon a typical (and perfect) plate of food eaten at one of Wholly Macro's normal meals.

Does your plate of food look anything like this each day? It should. Try to model your plate of food after our plate of food.

So how exactly do you create a perfect plate of food from the containers you order from Wholly Macro???

You do so by taking servings from each container of food you purchase from us, and mixing and matching to create balance, health, and harmony, modeled after the above illustration of a Wholly Macro plate of food.

Many of the dishes we prepare at Wholly Macro overlap the basic plate of food as outlined above. We do this in order to super size each dish with a wide variety of foods for you, and we also do it for your convenience, so that you can use some of the items on our menu's as meal in one dishes, filling in the gaps on your own with an appropriate serving from another of our containers, or with something that you prepare for yourself, such as simple brown rice, basic miso soup, or plain steamed vegetables.   

In this way you can leave the more time consuming and involved recipes to us to prepare.

Here at Wholly Macro we like to cook, keeping creativity in mind to keep things interesting. Use your own creativeness to arrange your plate of food for each meal per our guidelines, allowing for some blurred lines depending on the weekly menu.

The Wholly Macro Weekly Delivery Menu clearly follows a format each week.

The format is as follows, and perfectly reflects the balance outlined within the New Food Pyramid, and the Wholly Macro Perfect Plate Of Food.

A Miso Based Soup

A Whole Grain Dish

A Protein Dish

A Miscellaneous Dish (such as pasta, or cracked grains mixed with vegetables or protein)

A Vegetable Dish

And Last But Far From Least, A Dessert.

In that order.

We always tell new (and old) clients, that if they order each item on our menu each week, they will get properly balanced nutrition. IF any of the items on our menu are omitted, it is up to them to fill that gap with a food from that same food group / category in order to maintain proper balance.

Portion size should be the amount of food that fills YOU, and only you up comfortably, and keep's you going from one meal to the next.

Please note: The entire plate does not need to be full!!

The amount of food that you eat may vary slightly from day to day or meal to meal, but generally, you should learn and respect the amount of food that your particular body needs in order to function at it's best, which means: Not being bogged down by overeating, nor being hungry in between meals because you did not eat enough. 

It is probably the other single most important Newsletter that we have written, right up there with this one!

We hope that the above information helps you in creating your own perfect plate of food each and every meal, of each and every day of your one and only life.

There are NO shortcuts.

Eating properly, healthily, and consistently is essential for long-term good health.

And it all starts in your plate.

It all starts with the perfect plate of food.

May health, happiness, and prosperity be your unavoidable natural state and your ongoing daily experience.

Gayle and Jaime / Wholly Macro