Personalize Your Plate in Honor of National Nutrition Month

Written by Jennifer Korneski (Somerset County 4-H & Healthy Living Coordinator)

The month of March may bring clovers and rainbows with pots of gold to mind, but I always think of National Nutrition Month®!

The first National Nutrition Week began in 1973 and included a presidential proclamation, public service announcements, news releases and even bumper stickers. As excitement for this campaign increased, it grew annually and National Nutrition Month® was inaugurated in 1980. National Nutrition Month® is an annual campaign created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Registered dietitians and health educators across the country educate the community about making informed food choices and developing healthful eating habits during the month of March.

When this idea was launched in 1973, the theme was “Invest in Yourself-Buy Nutrition”. Nutrition isn’t a tangible object to buy but it is something we can invest in by making informed food choices so that we get a balance of good nutrients that will keep us healthy and strong.

According to the Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025 recently released by the USDA, Americans are encouraged to eat a variety of foods and “make every bite count”. The MyPlate guidelines highlight the five food groups and provide serving recommendations for Americans from birth through senior years. The website offers interactive tools, assessments, worksheets, and healthy recipes.

This year’s National Nutrition Month® theme is “Personalize Your Plate”. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition and health. Although all we need the same nutrients for our body to function properly, we all have unique body types, health conditions, food allergies and cultural food preferences. We are encouraged to personalize our plate to foods that best fit our unique health needs and tastes, while still getting the essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and protein.

The MyPlate icon and the dietary guidelines recommend we make our best effort to:

Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
Think of eating a rainbow of produce so that you get the best variety of nutrients. They can be fresh, frozen or canned and eaten raw or cooked. Choose whole fruits over juice.
Make half your grains whole grains
Grains are divided into two subgroups: whole grains and refined grains. Examples of whole grains include whole-wheat flour, barley, oatmeal, whole cornmeal, and brown rice. Refined grains go through a milling process that gives grains a finer texture and improve shelf life but causes dietary fiber, iron, and many B vitamins to be removed. Some examples of refined grain products are white flour, white bread, and white rice. Most refined grains are enriched, which means some vitamins and minerals are added back after processing but fiber cannot be added back.
Vary your protein routine
The protein food group helps build and maintain muscles and bones and is found in seafood, meat, poultry, and eggs, beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, and soy products. Meat and poultry choices should be lean or low-fat and skinless.
Switch to low-fat or fat-free dairy milk or yogurt
Milk products are a good source of calcium but can be high in fat, choose low fat dairy sources and if you need to be dairy-free, make sure to get calcium from other sources like nut milk, sardines, soy products, green leafy vegetables or fortified juices and cereals.

I encourage you to research recommendations for your family’s age groups on www.myplate.gov and meal plan for the week ahead so that you are prepared with healthy dishes and snack options. Try new recipes so that your family can personalize their plates to enjoy the foods they eat and get a well-balanced plate.

One of our own 4-H volunteers and leaders, Ellen Parker, shared a family favorite recipe with me. Because Ellen’s family has several food sensitivities, she started experimenting with different recipes and put together a cookbook titled, Charms of Gluten Free.

Enjoy her Quinoa Tabbouleh recipe below. It is gluten-free and uses quinoa as a source of whole grain and protein. Thank you sharing Ellen!

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Ingredients

1 cup cooked Quinoa (1/2 cup uncooked)
2 bunches of fresh parsley
Several sprigs of fresh mint, optional
1 small red or sweet vidalia onion, diced
1 cucumber, diced
1 fresh tomato, diced
1 lemon
Olive Oil
A pinch of salt

Steps

1) Cook quinoa according to instructions
2) Stem the parsley and the mint, and put the leaves in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until chopped.
3) Dump the parsley and mint mixture into a medium bowl. Be sure to scrape out all the green goodness.
4) Add diced onion, cucumber, and tomato to the parsley mixture and toss.
5) Add half of the quinoa and toss. Adjust tabbouleh to preference. If you want more grain, add more quinoa.
6) Add the juice of half a lemon, several swirls of olive oil and salt.
7) Toss and serve at room temperature. Store covered in the fridge.

SOURCES

“About National Nutrition Month®” Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, https://www.eatright.org/ Accessed 26 Feb. 2021
“Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025.” U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 9th Edition. December 2020. Available at DietaryGuidelines.gov. Accessed 26 Feb. 2021
“What is MyPlate”. U.S Department of Agriculture https://www.myplate.gov/ Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

Personalize Your Plate in Honor of National Nutrition Month ®