When cooking dinner, many people think in terms of calorie counting or what they're "craving" at the time. While these are valuable considerations, thinking in terms of nourishment and energy will help your body perform all its important functions.

Food can be broken down into basically two categories: energy (calories from fat, carbohydrates and protein) and nourishment, and the nutrient density of the food (vitamins and minerals contents.) When determining your menu plan it's recommend to think of nourishment and energy. It's the nourishment aspect of your meal that contains the vitamins and minerals needed for the thousands of metabolic reactions occurring in the body, and the energy portion of this equation so that your cells have the fuel to drive these metabolic reactions.

ChicagoHealer.com practitioner Dr. Peter Glidden, M.D. offers the following criteria when thinking of your next meal.

1. Nourishment: Choose at least 2 fruits and vegetables. This can be a combo of 1 fruit and 1vegetable or 2 vegetables. You can choose more vegetables for the meal if you like but your biggest meals need to include at least 2 servings from the fruit/vegetable category. Try to mix it up!
Don't eat the same fruits and vegetables all the time.
2. Protein: 25-35% of every meal needs to be of a protein source. Protein can come from plant-based sources like beans, seeds, nut, sprouts, and quinoa or it can come from animal based sources like fish, eggs, chicken, turkey and small amounts of red meat (if OK'd by your nutritionist.) 3. Carbohydrates: This is your main energy source. It's the primary fuel that your cells prefer. Depending on your activity level and diabetic status, we recommend 40-60%. Carbohydrates come from many food sources but when thinking in terms of a side dish of carbohydrates, we are implying mashed potatoes, pasta, rice, whole grain bread, or couscous. Your fruits and veggies are also a good source of carbohydrates.
4. Fats: There should always be some source of fat in your meal. Fat contains many nutrient such as A, D, E, and K. Your meal should contain anywhere from 15-25% fat. If your meal contains animal proteins, then there will be some fat consumed from the meat. Other quality sources of fat to consider are raw olive oil (use it to dip your whole grain bread in! Yum!), coconut butter (cook with it, spread on corn on the cob, spread on whole grain bread or crackers), avocados, seeds and nuts.