10 Easy Ways to Understand Portion Size
Learning what proper portion size for each food is a useful tool in nutrition. It is an understandable way to approach eating the right amount. Often times we do not have scales for weighing out food, measuring cups or other tools at our disposal to help us measure the suggested portion size. Most people do not or will not take the time to measure with such accuracy anyway. Therefore, understanding these simple ways of knowing how much of each food to eat and how the portions relate to each other can take you a long way towards eating the right amount of food.
FRUIT: A tennis ball is one serving of fruit. This could look like a medium sized pear or orange, a handful of grapes or a few strawberries. Often times a large apple can be two servings of fruit when we believe that we have eaten one.
CHEESE: One serving of cheese weighs about one ounce. This is similar to the size of a 3.5-inch computer disk, iPhone plus or a coffee table coaster. One serving size as a block of cheese is about the size of two dominos.
LIQUID CALORIES: A serving of juice is ½ cup. This is not simply having a half glass because a glass could be a variety of sizes, but 4 oz. Many types of juice, coffee, sodas, sweet teas have different calorie contents and a serving size of one does not equal the same nutritional caloric value of another. 4 oz is 1/3 of a canned drink.
MEAT: One serving of meat is equal to 3 ounces, the size of a deck of cards or a bar of soap. Watch out, different types of meat have different amounts of fat. It is good to have some fat in our diet but eating too much animal fat is bad for us. It’s a good idea to eat mostly lean protein.
NUTS and SEEDS: A serving of legumes is about 8 grams or a fourth of a cup cooked. This is approximately the size of a golf ball. It far too easy to grab a handful of nuts (probably about two servings) or a cup of nuts which could be 4-5 servings.
VEGETABLES: One serving is usually about half a cup or the size of a tennis ball. When vegetables are cooked they usually become smaller and lose some of their water weight. Therefore a serving size of cooked vegetables is usually a bit smaller than uncooked.
FAT: A serving of fat (butter, margarine, oil, mayo, etc.) is one teaspoon or about the size of the tip of your thumb. Most restaurants cook in a lot more than the recommended amount of fat, hence why it tastes so good, and therefore it’s usually more than people cook with at home. Be aware of this and the extra servings of fat you might eat when dining out.
CANDY: One serving of unbaked sweets (chocolate, candy) is about the size of a golf ball or dental floss package. With food like this, that is easy to eat way too much of, we should eat one serving at the most per day. It's best to get yourself a serving and move away from the container to not overeat.
BAKED GOODS: A serving of baked sweets (cookie, brownie, cake) is approximately the size of a deck of cards. These too are hard to eat only one serving but having more than one in a day is not healthy for a sedentary lifestyle. Therefore save your serving for what you want to do. Be aware of the large cookie that is three servings!
BREAD: One serving of bread is about the size of an index card. Therefore a bagel is two servings. Bread on a club sandwich is three servings of bread and eating pita bread could be four plus serving of bread in one meal.
For most foods, one serving is going to be 1/2 cup or the size of your fist. So when you go to a restaurant, try to figure out how many servings of each type of food you ordered. Then, determine how much you want to eat or usually eat and package the rest to take home before you even start eating. Eating out is often challenging because we get served too much food and the food is prepared with more oils and fats which tempt us to overeat. Having half your plate be vegetables, one fourth meat and one fourth grain is a simple and healthy way to approach food preparation.
