The Half-Plate Rule
This term has many names – the half-plate rule, the 50/50 plate, half-plate healthy. No matter the label, for optimizing nutrition and achieving a healthy weight, half of our plates should be filled with produce, ideally mostly veggies. This is true if you are fully plant-based or an omnivore. If we want our best shots at optimal health and a normal BMI, half of our plates should be covered with produce, no matter what's on the other side.
The easiest way to achieve this, is just to eyeball your plate. At first, I found it helpful to actually lay out my plate putting the starch and protein on one side and then filling the other half of my plate with veggies. Now, when serving myself, I just add a little starch to my plate (usually a whole grain, tuber, or noodle) – about ½ cup to 1 cup. Then, I add some protein (tofu, beans, tempeh) – about ½ cup to 1 cup. Then I fill the rest of my plate with gorgeous produce, including as much variety as possible and ideally shooting to have both non-starchy veg and something leafy. The photos show a few examples of our recent meals. Just by eyeballing the dishes, you can see that at least half of our plates are filled with veg and fresh fruit. Most sauces are also made using fresh produce (herbs, fruit, peppers).
But what about breakfast? I don’t want to eat veggies as half my breakfast! I totally get that. If you just can’t stomach veggies in the morning, you can just fill half your plate with fresh fruit. When you make oats, fill one side of your bowl with oatmeal and the other side with berries, banana, or your fruit of choice. Have whole grain toast with peanut butter and fruit on the side. The goal is just to add more produce to each meal in whatever way you like.
Filling half of our plates with produce increases the nutrient density of our meals (think phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and plant fiber), while reducing the caloric density (think more food volume for less calories). The half-plate rule = happy gut bugs, improved health, healthy weight. Yay!
Happy eating!
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The half-plate rule is easy to see in this falafel bowl.
Your plate doesn't have to be 50-50 side by side. Here, the grain and protein are topped with an equal amount of veg.
Banh Mi Bowl with pickled veg. This has about a cup of rice noodles, about a cup of tofu, and the rest of my plate is veg.
As you can see, more than half of the plate is veg and fruit in this Thai peanut noodle bowl.