Industry Figure Tom Chappell

Here’s a really simple rule, that is incredibly easy to follow if you make meals for yourself, rather harder to follow if you eat out quite a bit, and almost impossible to follow if you primarily eat fast foods:

No more than 50% of your plate should be taken up by high-density calories, such as meat or macaroni and cheese; the other half should hold healthful vegetables and fruit.

Actually, it makes me slightly ill, now, to think of a plate that is half full of macaroni and cheese, but I’ve eaten countless plates full of the stuff in my day, so a slightly-smaller plate with only half that much would certainly have been an improvement.

It’s a really good rule, and very simple to implement when you’re preparing your own meals: it’s the work of a moment to envision how your proposed meal is going to look on your plate, and to think of what can be done to fix it (smaller meat portions, or add a vegetable, perhaps?)

Say, wouldn’t that delicious meal be even better with a little broccoli?