It’s March 2021, Time to Personalize Your Plate

Some of the best personalized plates I’ve seen include, “EWW A BUG” on a Volkswagen beetle, “VLAD THE” on a Chevy Impala (get it?), “R U NEXT” on a Hearst, and “MUAHAHA” on a car that cut me off. Wait…wrong article. This is, of course, a blog devoted to food and health, not personalized license plates; sorry about that. This is supposed to be a post devoted to personalizing your FOOD plate…

Since 1980, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has claimed March as National Nutrition Month. It was previously known only as National Nutrition Week from 1973-1979. Each year, National Nutrition Month has had a theme, and this year that theme is Personalize Your Plate. Since we’ve determined that it does not refer to license plates, what does Personalize Your Plate refer to, nutritionally?

The theme, “Personalize Your Plate” is simply a recognition that healthy eating is not a one size fits all proposition. We all have personal preferences when it comes to food and that with so many food choices out there, it’s relatively easy to choose the healthy foods that most appeal to you. It’s also a recognition that cultural and geographical factors play a role in people’s food choices and that they should be embraced.

For example, my mother immigrated to America from Ireland in 1968, and  as a result, she passed on her fondness for Irish food to me. To this day I still enjoy shepherd’s pie, soda bread and trifle…blood sausage, parsnips and turnips, not so much. I have since substituted meatless ground beef for the lamb mom used in her shepherd’s pie recipe. In other words, I updated my personalized plate in a healthy manner.

However, my mother was never afraid to introduce us to non-Irish dishes and I still consider her spaghetti and meatballs recipe to be the best on the planet. She also introduced me to curry and I still seek out that traditional Indian spice today. I just seek it out in healthy dishes as opposed to my younger days. Also, with my wife’s assistance, we continue to expand our healthy food horizons, especially in the areas of fruits and vegetables. I recently discovered an affinity for beets (red and golden), okra and star fruit. Do not be afraid to be a food explorer.

As I hope my examples have shown, there’s nothing wrong with incorporating your favorite foods onto your plate so long as you make healthy “adjustments” to your favorite unhealthy foods. Always remember, you are in charge of your diet (or plate, in this instance) and you can place your favorite healthy foods on your plate, just remember to include your favorite foods from the major food groups. If you need some assistance with this, visit the USDA’s MyPlate website.

You can also personalize your plate to help you achieve your personal goals, whatever they may be, from weight loss to a lowered BMI. This whole Personalize Your Plate theme is really part of a larger campaign to get folks to PLAN your diet and incorporate it into an improved healthy lifestyle. However, that does not mean eating foods you dislike just because they are healthy. Look, I don’t care how healthy parsnips and turnips are, I have not eaten them since I became old enough to refuse my mom’s root vegetable bullying. I have simply located healthy substitutes that I find palatable (like beets) through food experimentation and added them to my plate. And really this is what the Personalize Your Plate theme means, put the healthy foods you enjoy on your plate, but don’t forget to look for new favorites whenever possible. And if those favorites are on the MagicKitchen.com website, so be it!  Now go personalize your own plate.