By Thomas Norton/reporter
NE students and faculty learned how carbohydrates and food portions can affect their health at the third Diabetes Empowerment Education Program on Oct. 25.
“Everything is bigger in Texas, including the platter that our food is served on in the restaurants,” said Toya Norton, John Peter Smith Hospital diabetes advocate. “We have grown from 9-inch plates to the platter. It’s OK to leave some food on the plate. It’s better to request a tray to go before eating and take half of the food home for later.”
She used three different examples of a plate showing proper portion sizes that should be eaten. Meat should be the size of the palm of a hand and as thick as a deck of cards.
The food portions and combination selections are important even if a person is not a diabetic, Norton said.
Norton explained carbohydrates, proteins and food groups. She demonstrated how to count carbohydrates and explained what’s not counted. For example, protein is considered a “free food.”
She then divided the audience into groups and assigned a carbohydrate-counting activity. She handed out a sheet of paper with lists of food items. Students needed to put a meal together using exactly 45 grams of carbohydrates for a woman and 60 grams for a man, the maximum amount allowed. If the numbers were over or under, the groups would have to work together to see what changes needed to be made to balance out the correct number of carbohydrates for a man and woman.
Enjoying the activity, the groups worked together asking questions and making comments. By the end of class, the participants had questions about diabetes and ways to count carbohydrates.
Norton started the speech by giving a verbal pop quiz over the information from the previous speeches in the four-part series.
“It helps those who may have missed a class but also to refresh the minds of those who have attended. The more you hear it, you will remember it,” she said.
Those who attended the classes could answer the questions correctly.
“I feel that the class was wonderful. Toya really broke it down to where anyone in the class could understand what she was saying,” said NE student development associate Karen Raulerson. “I was interested in learning about carbohydrates, and when I had left the class I felt that I knew everything.”
