6 Ways Livliga Helps us eat a Balanced Diet

We focus so much on “dieting” and “losing weight.” When we talk about losing weight or even about weight management, it all centers on the types of foods we eat, like whole foods, or about the amounts of food we eat. Very rarely do we talk about the importance of the combination of foods we eat to fuel our bodies and live our healthiest life.

When I travel around the country talking about Livliga and living a healthy lifestyle I find that very few people know what it means to eat a balanced diet. They know more about the portions we should be eating than the proportions of the variety of foods we need to eat for a healthy diet.

Both portion and proportion are key to eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle. If we want to maintain our quality of life long term we need to pay attention to both how much we are eating of a given food as well as the variety of foods we need to be eating at every meal and throughout each day.

Why is eating a balanced diet at every meal important?

A balanced diet is important because your organs and tissues need proper nutrition to work effectively. Without good nutrition, your body is more prone to disease, infection, fatigue, and poor performance. A balanced diet helps us avoid many chronic diseases including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity-related cancers.

What makes up a balanced meal?

The simplest answer is to be aware of the 5 different food groups, according to the USDA MyPlate: Vegetable, Fruit, Protein, Grain and Dairy. The easiest references for what makes up a balanced diet are the Dietary Guidelines for Americans published by the USDA with HHS and ChooseMyPlate.gov. On the ChooseMyPlate.gov website it states: “Eating healthy is a journey shaped by many factors, including our stage of life, situations, preferences, access to food, culture, traditions, and the personal decisions we make over time. All your food and beverage choices count”.

Is there anyway to make eating balanced meals easy?

Yes, there is. Having to be aware of both portions and proportions at every meal can seem way too complicated. What is really needed is a framework to help with both the types of food we should be eating as well as the amounts of those foods we should consume at a meal. Honestly, that is why Livliga was created. See all the reasons it can help guide and assist with managing your healthy meals, everyday and at every meal.

Here’s how Livliga supports and reminds you about a balanced meal:

1. Food Groups are represented by individual icons. 

Types of foods are represented on every Livliga dinner plate, regardless of pattern. The largest circle icon is for your fruit or vegetable. The icon with two concentric circles is for your starch or grain. The squared icon is designated for your protein. The smallest icon is for your sauces, condiments, gravies and salad dressings.

2. Each Food group is shown with its relative and unique size compared to the other food groups.

As you can see by the photo below, each circle is clearly a different size. Understanding that the largest circle is for vegetables or fruits, the next sized circles are for your grains or starch, the squared icon is yet another cue to designate our protein (it is different to remind us that proteins are typically measured through weight, not volume) and then the smallest circle we can see is just for a dollop for the “extras” we may add to our meal  that still need to be included in what we eat and the calories we will consume.

3. The icons for each food group are also specific serving sizes.

On the back of each dinner plate there is a map that shows the standard serving size for each of the food groups, according to the USDA, that we see on the front of each plate whether it is the dinner plate or side plate. Typical serving sizes are also built into each piece of Livliga we make to make it easy to right size our serving sizes, no matter what we are consuming.

4. The Celebrate and Kidliga designs also make understanding the food groups and their proportions easy to see as they are literally displayed on the plates to make them easily understood as well as visually intuitive.

So much of learning how to eat right is learning what we should be eating as well as how much of each type of food we should serve up. A lot of us are visual learners. For those who want or need that reinforcement, we have designed the visual cues both for adults and kids in specific patterns we offer. Both our Celebrate: The Poetry of Life and Kidliga have icons with artful depictions of the different food groups designed right into to the specific iconic circles so you can literally see what food goes where on the dish.

5. Livliga Tableware right sizes your eyes and helps your eyes adjust to what looks appropriate, which then helps you see the relative sizes of the foods that make up a balanced meal.

It is no secret that we live in a super sized world. The problem is that that is our frame of reference every time we serve up a meal. We know what super-sized looks like but we have no idea what right-sized is. Livliga helps us to get used to what right-sized is, especially when we use it every day and at every meal. Eventually, thanks to Livliga, it becomes easier and easier to recognize what a right-sized serving is, and for us to then feel satisfied with balanced, right-sized meals.

6. Does not dictate what vegetable, what starchy food or what protein you should be eating, just that a balance of these foods is what will help you live your healthiest life.

The beauty of Livliga is that it works with any diet or dietary preferences. You can be Paleo, Vegan, Vegetarian, Whole30, or be on Weight Watchers new “Freestyle™” diet and benefit from the framework and cues Livliga provides. It will always be there to remind us of portions, proportions and what a balanced meal is no matter what you may be choosing to eat. Livliga helps you live your healthiest life…always…one bite at a time.