Downsize your plate to downsize your waist

8 July 2009

                              
- Guyra Healthy Highlanders -

Not only have our waistlines grown in the past 20 years, but so have our plate sizes. Dinner plates used to be an average of 26cm (10 inches), but now they are often 32cm (12 inches) or more.

Although two inches may seem like a small amount, remember that our perception of how much food we have is relative to the size of the dish it is served on. In other words, if you served pasta on a 12 inch plate, you’d end up serving yourself a lot more than if you had started with a 10 inch plate.

Organisers of the upcoming Guyra Healthy Highlanders program will be embracing a common sense approach to health and wellbeing, promoting messages such as the Small Plate Movement.

The Small Plate Movement is a combined effort by academia, government, media and industry in the USA to help families lose weight and feel healthier simply by reducing the size of their dinner plates.

Guyra Healthy Highlanders’ coordinator Liane Fryer said larger plates equate to more room to pile food onto.

“A two inch reduction in plate diameter – from a 12 to 10 inch plate - would result in 22 per cent fewer calories being served, leading to a weight loss of around 18 pounds a year for an average-size adult. A relatively minor change in daily eating habits can make a real difference over the long-term,” Ms Fryer explained.

Guyra Healthy Highlanders is a motivational exercise and health education program aimed at helping people improve their overall wellbeing. 

The program will run for three months and will be open to anyone aged over 18 years wanting to lose weight and increase their health and fitness.  It is hoped that Guyra district residents will have a leaner, sleeker look by the end of the 12-week challenge.

“The program has been designed with the community’s needs in mind, with a focus on affordable and interactive education and exercise sessions,” Ms Fryer said.

“Guyra Healthy Highlanders will feature: physical activity classes; several information sessions with a dietitian, psychologist and physiotherapist; supermarket tours; cooking demonstrations; Healthy Highlander café and restaurant specials; and local business offers and events.

“We look forward to presenting a wonderful program to assist the Guyra community with achieving their healthy lifestyle goals.”

Guyra Healthy Highlanders is due to kick-off with a registration week starting on Monday 3 August. To register, visit Guyra MPS on either Monday 3 August, Wednesday 5 August, or Friday 7 August between 9am and 1pm, or on the Monday or Wednesday evening between 5pm and 7pm. Interested community members can also register at the Guyra Aboriginal Lands Council with Pauline Jerrard on Tuesday 4 August between 9am and 1pm.

For further information on registration details or the program call Guyra MPS on (02) 6738 4000.

(HNE-1898)

Contact: Carisa Green

Phone: (02) 6767 7135 or 0428 106 183