COUNSELING SUPPORT TOOL

Decorative Image: Image of the counseling support tool for young women

Speaker Notes:

Question 6: How often do you have foods from the meat and beans group? (There are four possible answers.)

• If your patient answered "twice a day," then no change is needed since she is meeting the guidelines

• If your patient gave any of the highlighted answers, then she may not be meeting the guideline to "eat two servings from the meat group each day for a total of 5–6 ounces." If this is the case, then the recommendation that you can write down in the Guide is to "choose low-fat or lean meats and poultry. Eat more fish, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds," and you can refer your patient to pages 19–24 of the Guide. Please note that Healthy Eating questions 5–9 ask about food frequency or how many times a day your patient eats from a particular food group rather than the number of servings that she eats each day. This is because people find it easier to think about how often they eat a type of food. Also, since a patient may eat more servings during a meal than what is defined by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, it's a good idea to ask your patient about the size of the serving that she typically chooses, so you'll get an idea of whether she's meeting the guidelines.