Can One Plate Make a Difference?

When someone is diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes, it can be scary and overwhelming. Could one plate really make a difference? If it’s our Healthy Plate for Diabetes, we think so!

For most people, learning how to eat for blood sugar control is an ongoing process. If this process ends when they leave your office or class, they’re not going to make much progress.

But when they take home the Healthy Plate for Diabetes, they’ll have a tool to help them build diabetes/prediabetes-friendly meals by:

  • Increasing intake of non-starchy vegetables, which take up half of the plate
  • Limiting grains and starchy vegetables to one quarter of the plate
  • Keeping lean protein to one quarter of the plate
  • Mastering portion control without weighing or measuring food
  • Using the Healthy Plate for Diabetes/MyPlate concept as a guide when eating mixed dishes, casseroles, sandwiches, etc.
  • Visualizing their Healthy Plate when eating away from home

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

PS: Here’s a fantastic new handout to help your clients put these ideas into practice: Diabetes Handout

Behind the Scenes: New Cooking and Prediabetes Posters

Hey, do you remember that Chop Test article you saw a while back? How about that Prediabetes Guide?

If you do, then you’re not alone. Lots of people reached out and told me that those were two of their favorite posts. So many, in fact, that I decided to take those posts to the next level and turn them into nutrition education materials.

The Chop Test offers a simple and memorable guide to cooking with vegetables, so I decided that the key points would make a marvelous poster that could be hung in a commercial kitchen, posted in a health fair booth, propped up for a cooking demonstration, or incorporated into a nutrition display.

This guide to properly preparing vegetables is as versatile as it is useful. With a simple test to tell which kind of vegetable is best for which cooking style, this bright and informative poster will help your audience gain kitchen confidence while introducing new vegetables into their eating plans.

Will this poster make your life easier? Learn more about it!

Now let’s change gears and take a closer look at the new Prediabetes poster.

The statistics on prediabetes are astounding. My hope is that we can help our practitioners help people avoid diabetes entirely — heading it off before prediabetes turns into full-blown diabetes. This poster offers an excellent screening tool that is done in an engaging infographic style. With information on what prediabetes is, how it affects the body, what symptoms it displays, and what the average consumer can do to reduce his or her risk of prediabetes (or treat the condition itself), this poster offers a bright and simple way to educate your audience. Throw it in a display, use it to pep up a shared space, add it to a wellness fair booth, or hang it in your office — it will be a great educational resource for whatever you need.

This poster uses colorful graphics, simple sentences, and clear diagrams to appeal to a wide range of learning styles, promoting participant engagement while boosting information retention. It draws its information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Diabetes Association (ADA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), so you know that the research that backs it is supported by the latest peer-reviewed science.

Intrigued by this poster? Get the details today!

And, because I love ya, I want to share the handout that accompanies the Chop Test poster. Here it is, in all it’s glory! Download the free PDF today!

Chop Test Handout

We’re here to help you look your very best, right now! So which resource will make your life easier?

Nutrition Bootcamp: PowerPoint and Handout Set

Chop Test Poster

Elementary Nutrition Workbook

MiPlato y la Diabetes en Español

Do you provide Spanish language nutrition education materials for your students or clients?

According to Forbes:

  • 13% of the U.S. population speaks Spanish at home;
  • Spanish is the most common non-English language spoken in our country;
  • The U.S. has the second largest population of Spanish speakers in the world.

That’s why you’ll find a variety of Spanish language materials at the NutritionEducationStore.com, including:

You’ll also find some great MyPlate in Spanish materials at MyPlate.gov. Your students or clients can take the MiPlato Quiz, get a personalized MiPlato Plan, and visit MiPlato Kitchen for recipes.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

A Different Kind of Freedom

Independence Day will be here before we know it. As we celebrate freedom in the United States, we have some unique materials that prompt your clients, students, or employees to consider a different kind of freedom.

Our Freedom from Chronic Disease materials inspire folks to think about their health and realize that good health can bring them freedom, now and in the future.

What kind of freedom are we talking about? Here are some examples and ideas you can use to discuss Freedom from Chronic Disease:

  1. Freedom from worry. Someone who has a long family history of heart disease may spend lots of time worrying about it. Would making a diet or lifestyle change now, even if it’s small, help to alleviate this worry? Maybe feeling more in control will lead them to make more healthy changes.
  2. Freedom from medications. Think about the money you can save by not having to take cholesterol-lowering drugs, for example. All meds have side effects, so not having to worry about that is another form of freedom that people may not consider.
  3. Freedom from expensive healthcare. Chronic disease means seeing specialists, undergoing tests and procedures, paying for prescriptions, and more doctor visits in general. These things are costly in dollars as well as your time.
  4. Freedom from high food costs. People think that healthy food costs more, but a little education can go a long way when it comes to healthy eating on a budget. Healthy food doesn’t have to be organic or gourmet!
  5. Freedom to do what you want to do. This is important as you get older. When you’re healthy, it’s easier to travel, play with your grandkids (or great-grandkids!), and stay independent.

Spread the word about the benefits of Freedom from Chronic Disease with posters, banners, bookmarks, and stickers!

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

Let’s Get People Moving!

Exercise is so important to health, yet most Americans lead sedentary lives and only 20% of adults and adolescents meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

Here are some ways you can promote physical activity to your clients, students, or employees:

  1. All ages benefit. From preschoolers to octagenarians, movement makes a difference. Tailor your message to the age group you’re working with.
    • The Move Your Way campaign has free materials like short videos, social media messages, graphics, and GIFs (many in Spanish) that target different populations, including adults, older adults, parents and kids, and pregnant/postpartum women.
  2. Any movement counts. Simply sitting less is a step in the right direction and has benefits. The same goes for the movement you do while cleaning the house or playing with the kids.
    • Be Active Everyday Your Own Way is a simple handout with guidance for kids and adults. It also shows that everyday activities like walking the dog and washing dishes counts as movement.
    • Home Exercise poster is a light-hearted reminder that you don’t need to join a gym or run a marathon. You can get movement throughout your day and in the comfort of your own home.
  3. Take advantage of transitions. Going back to the office after working from home due to the pandemic is a great time to start a new exercise habit. The same goes for other life transitions like having a baby or starting a new school year.
  4. Find a health motivator. Exercise has so many immediate and long-term benefits that everyone is bound to relate to at least one of them.
    • Not sleeping well? Diagnosed with high blood pressure? Dealing with anxiety? Physical activity has immediate effects on these issues.
    • Worried about your risk of developing cancer, diabetes, depression, or dementia? Physical activity has long-term effects on these conditions (and many more!).
    • 3 Prong Exercise Plan to Stop Prediabetes is an example of targeting a health condition many folks might be worrying about.
  5. Manage a health condition. Exercise can help…
    • Decrease pain for those with osteoarthritis.
    • Reduce disease progression for hypertension and type 2 diabetes.
    • Reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
    • Improve cognition for those with dementia, multiple sclerosis, ADHD, and Parkinson’s disease.

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

Diabetes Education – One Size Doesn’t Fit All

When it comes to nutrition education, one size doesn’t fit all. This is especially true for teaching people about diabetes.

As educators, we have to think about who we’re teaching:

  • Are they newly-diagnosed?
    • There’s a lot to learn.
    • They may be in denial, scared, motivated, overwhelmed, or all of the above.
  • Are they “veteran” patients?
    • They may think they know everything, but their numbers show otherwise.
    • Good habits can slip during times of stress (or a pandemic).
    • There’s always something new to learn.
  • Do they have pre-diabetes?
    • They may be motivated to do what they can to avoid or delay diabetes.
  • Are they caregivers or family members of someone who has diabetes?
    • They may want to learn all they can to help their loved one.
    • They may resent having to make changes to accommodate the person with diabetes.

We also have to consider things like motivation level and learning style. So you can see that one size definitely does not fit all!

Our 12 Lessons of Diabetes Program can help. We’ve put together a dozen PowerPoint presentations that can be used in different ways depending on who you’re teaching and what they need to learn. The 12 topics are:

  1. Diabetes basics
  2. Goal setting
  3. Know your numbers (A1C, blood pressure, cholesterol)
  4. Weight management
  5. Exercise
  6. Healthy eating
  7. Importance of breakfast
  8. Diabetes plate
  9. Carb counting and label reading
  10. Food shopping
  11. Snacks
  12. Sugar substitutes

You could use the program to offer a 12-part series. By the end, your clients will learn everything they need to live a healthy life with diabetes. Presenting information in “chunks” makes it less overwhelming. In between sessions, there’s time to digest the information and put it to use in the real world.

For clients who don’t need the entire program, you can pick and choose which sessions will be most beneficial. If they are resistant to learning, letting them choose what to cover might help.

Most importantly, the information in our 12 Lessons is always presented in a light-hearted, positive, and supportive way.

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Diabetes & COVID-19

While having diabetes doesn’t make you more likely to catch the novel coronavirus, it does increase your chance of getting very sick if you do become infected. So how can we help people with diabetes who are anxious and afraid of COVID-19?

The American Diabetes Association has lots of helpful, practical information:

Another way to help people with diabetes is to recognize whether they are newly diagnosed or have lived with diabetes for years, the coronavirus pandemic could be a turning point for them. They might be motivated to learn more about their disease and to change their diet and lifestyle in hopes of controlling or reversing their diabetes.

With individual counseling or online group sessions, you can make sure they understand diabetes, how it progresses, and how it can be reversed or at least improved. Our new Diet and Type 2 Diabetes – Progression and Remission PowerPoint shows cover these concepts in detail. The three shows are:

  1. Diabetes Overview – this show covers the basics. It’s perfect for the newly diagnosed, but even those who have been living with diabetes will learn lots.
  2. Optimal Diet for Type 2 Diabetes – this show goes beyond food exchanges and carb counting. It teaches a Mediterranean- or DASH-style of eating that has the potential to reverse type 2 diabetes or at least keep blood sugar and weight under control.
  3. Guide to Losing Weight with Diabetes – this show goes into more detail on strategies for losing weight and keeping it off to improve or even reverse type 2 diabetes.

Don’t miss this chance to help people with diabetes take steps to a healthier life!

Diabetes & Fear

When talking about diabetes, it’s tempting to spout statistics. The numbers are scary, but will hearing scary statistics over and over cause the average American to take action so that they don’t become a statistic? Or will it overwhelm and scare them into not doing anything at all?

Of course, it’s important to get the message out there about diabetes. But maybe we can do a better job of helping some people by addressing this disease in a less intimidating way. Our new Type 2 Diabetes Risk Poster and matching tearpad can help you do just that. It’s very straightforward, providing:

  • A checklist of risk factors.
  • A chart with blood glucose/A1C levels for normal, prediabetes, and diabetes.
  • Three steps to prevent diabetes.
  • A statement about how high blood sugar can damage the body.

This information is basic but should spark people’s interest enough to get them to consider what step they need to take, whether it’s getting a blood glucose test or talking to their doctor or dietitian.

You could also use the information on this poster as the basis for a short class, group chat, or Facebook Live session discussing these three questions:

  1. Are you at risk of developing diabetes? How many of your risk factors are in your power to change?
  2. Do you know your blood glucose numbers (A1C, fasting, glucose tolerance test)? More importantly, do you know what they mean?
  3. What are you willing to do to prevent diabetes? Consider changes to your diet and exercise routine and modest weight loss.

You can follow up on the discussion with time for Q&A. Or simply ask participants to submit their questions, to be answered in a future session.

Be sure to end with a call to action. Ask participants to write down 1-3 things they will do based on what they’ve learned. Will they make an appointment to find out their glucose numbers? Take a walk after dinner every night? Calculate 5-7 percent of their body weight and use this number as a weight loss goal?

Above all, encourage folks to visit their doctor and get a blood glucose/A1C test – even if they’re afraid to learn that they have diabetes. Remind them that knowledge is power, and power is better than fear!

Keeping it Basic for the Overwhelmed Patient with Diabetes

Learning that you have diabetes can be overwhelming. There’s blood sugar monitoring and new medication, a new meal plan or carb counting, and possibly insulin. That’s a lot to deal with! Some patients panic, others go into denial, and some do both. The patient’s spouse or caregiver may also experience these feelings.

The Way to Eat with Diabetes Handout Tearpad provides the basics without oversimplifying things. The easy-to-read format breaks information into chunks that everyone can understand.

The front side (also available as a poster) is full color and gives general tips on timing meals, eating the right carbs, making a healthy plate and knowing limits for alcohol, sweets, and unhealthy fats. There’s also a list of good food choices for people with diabetes.

The back side goes into more detail for when patients are ready to learn about:

  • ‘Slow’ and ‘fast’ carbohydrates
  • Regular, balanced meals
  • Portion sizes
  • Empty calories
  • Diabetes super foods

When the diagnosis of diabetes is new, you don’t want to deluge patients with tons of information. The Way to Eat with Diabetes is the way to go!

 

Prediabetes = Preventdiabetes

“Prediabetes = Preventdiabetes” – this phrase on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website says it all. A diagnosis of prediabetes is serious, but you CAN take steps to prevent or delay the progression to diabetes.

Use our Prediabetes Poster and Prediabetes Color Handout Tearpad to get these important messages out:

  • What is prediabetes? If your blood sugar is higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes, you have prediabetes.
  • Who has prediabetes? One in three U.S. adults has prediabetes. The CDC says that 90 percent don’t know they have it.
  • How does prediabetes affect me? It can lead to type 2 diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. Over time, uncontrolled high blood sugar can cause kidney, nerve, and eye damage.
  • What can I do? Research shows that doing just two things can help you prevent or delay type 2 diabetes: Lose 5-7 percent of your body weight (10-14 pounds for someone who weighs 200 pounds) and get at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week, such as brisk walking.