DIABETES: Quite a Dish

Serving up a good idea for weight control and easy dieting

BY:MYRA DEMBROW

It is especially important for people with diabetes to control portion size when eating to control weight and glucose levels, and a University of Calgary study found that specially marked plates and bowls can help. Obese patients who used such dishes noticed dramatic decreases in both their weight and need for medication.

The painted tableware, made by the U.K.-based Diet Plate Company, comes in different versions for men and women. Plates are divided into sections for carbohydrates, proteins, vegetables, cheese and sauce. The men's plate is based on an 800-calorie meal, the women's on 650 calories. Bowls hold a 200-calorie serving of cereal and milk.

Seventeen percent of the patients in the Canadian project who used the special dishes lost more than five percent of their body weight after six months. Only 4.6 percent of a control group achieved that result.

"This is important, as a five percent weight loss has been shown to be clinically significant in terms of decreasing morbidity and mortality associated with obesity-linked disorders such as cancer and [heart attack]," the study authors wrote in the June 25, 2007, edition of The Archives of Internal Medicine.

Moreover, the patients who used the plates and bowls saw their need for diabetes medication drop 26 percent. That rate was more than twice that of the control group, which experienced only an 11 percent decline.

For more on the Diet Plate, click here.