About Us
We Created The Original Plate, in the USA. Showing healthy foods with meals familiar to our clients and incorporating The American Diabetes Association nutrition recommendations for people with diabetes. Our products are the result of feedback obtained from fifty educators around the country and our own experiences using and setting up a Plate Method. We continue to update material so you have the optimal blood glucose guidelines, and weight loss information. We improved the Plate by using carbohydrate distribution to help even out blood glucose levels decreasing hungry times.
Our Spanish handouts have Spanish foods, and Spanish words with English subtitles so non Spanish speaking educators can use the handouts, with the clients reading along in Spanish.
A plate model for meal planning was first described in 1970 in the Swedish magazine “Var Naring” (“Our Nourishment”). In the early 1980’s, Swedish nutritionists Margit Eliasson, Brita Karlstrom, Bergitta Melin and Bengt Vessby, MD, wrote Mat Vid Diabetes och Hjartkarlssjukdom: Bra Mat for Alla (Food For People With Diabetes and Heart Disease: Good Food For Everyone), a patient booklet to help clients more easily select helpful meals with acceptable food proportions, without measuring.
In Idaho, beginning in 1993, the following five members of the Idaho Diabetes Care and Education practice group adapted the Swedish Plate Model:
- Kathleen Thomas, RD, CD, LD, CDE
- Marisue Smith, RD, LD, CDE
- Helena Rizer, RD, CDE, MPAS, PA-C
- Julie Harker Buck, MHE, RD, LD
- Marjorie Rich, RD, LD, CDE