Build my healthy, balanced plate

Interactive · 2 min · free · no data stored

Add foods to your virtual plate. The tool gives you qualitative feedback suited to the type of meal — with no misleading calorie counting.

Balanced plate example

Mixed salad (1/2), Grilled chicken (1/4), Brown rice (1/4)

Which meal would you like to build?

What this tool gives you

Build my healthy, balanced plate is a free tool that turns the balanced-plate model into concrete visual markers: roughly half the plate as raw or cooked vegetables, a quarter as ideally wholegrain starches (wholemeal bread, brown rice, wholewheat pasta, potatoes, pulses) and a quarter as lean protein (fish, poultry, eggs, pulses, tofu), plus a quality raw fat (olive or rapeseed oil) and water to drink.

These proportions follow WHO, PNNS and EFSA guidance and the Harvard 'Healthy Eating Plate' model, applied to conventioned dietetic practice in Luxembourg (CNS–ANDL convention). You add foods to a virtual plate and the tool immediately shows what is missing, what is over-represented and how to rebalance the meal without counting calories.

You take away markers you can reuse daily for lunch and dinner, including under constraints: canteen, quick meal, last-minute shopping or one family meal for everyone. The tool is free, needs no sign-up, stores no data and does not replace an individual dietetic consultation.

Frequently asked questions

Do these proportions suit everyone?: No. Diabetes, kidney failure, pregnancy, intensive sport or undernutrition require individual adjustments.
Do I need to weigh food?: No, the tool works in visual proportions, which are easier to sustain.
Can I use it for the whole family?: Yes, as a general marker; portions vary with age and activity.
How do I adapt the plate for weight loss?: Keep the same proportions, increase the vegetable volume, keep a portion of wholegrain starch at every meal and favour lean proteins and low-fat cooking; severe restriction or cutting out a whole food group is counterproductive.
How do I adapt the plate for diabetes?: Keep the starch share stable from meal to meal, combine it with fibre-rich vegetables and a protein source to blunt the glucose rise; precise adjustments depend on your treatment and are made with your doctor and dietitian.
What about digestive comfort?: With bloating or irritable bowel syndrome, increase fibre gradually, spread volumes across the day and test tolerance food by food rather than excluding broadly.

Method and sources

The feedback is based on PNNS and EFSA guidelines and on Harvard's "Healthy Eating Plate" model: a source of protein, a portion of ideally wholegrain starchy food, a generous portion of vegetables, a quality fat and an unsweetened drink.

Breakfast is assessed differently from lunch and dinner: the "½ vegetables · ¼ protein · ¼ starchy food" rule doesn't apply to it.

The tool doesn't calculate calories or grams of macronutrients: the icons aren't meant for precisely estimating a portion. It offers a qualitative reading that can be adapted to each person.

Sources: Santé publique France — PNNS 2019 guidelines; EFSA — Dietary Reference Values; "Healthy Eating Plate", Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Clinical methodology: the proportions follow the balanced-plate reference points used in European nutrition guidance and by learned societies, adapted to conventioned dietetic practice in Luxembourg (CNS–ANDL convention).

What's next?

These pointers are a starting point: the next steps are built with a professional, from your actual situation.

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