A Visual View of Serving Size using Everyday Items
I’m sure you’ve heard it said over and over again, that the key to a healthy diet and weight management is portion control. The concept is easy: if you eat less, you consume fewer calories, and therefore you lose weight! But, what does a “portion” of food look like?
With the current trend to up-size or super-size meals, it can be really tough to figure out what a “normal” portion size should look like. Most people do know the basics about nutrition, however, we must to be aware of just how much we are eating. This is just as important as what we eat.
What is the difference between a serving and a portion?
A food serving helps you understand how much food is recommended from each of the food groups within the Balance of Good Health, or the Food Pyramid. In some cases, a food serving may be close to what we actually eat, such as an apple. In other cases we may serve more than one food serving, for example rice or pasta.
A portion is the amount of food we choose to eat. There are no standard portion sizes. Since it would be impossible for us to carry our weighing scales with us everyday to measure our food portions, being able to estimate what a serving size looks like, is really useful in making sure we aren’t overeating.
How can we determine what a reasonable portion of food would look like?
Often we remember items easier when we can visualise their size, shape or weight, in comparison to something else. Relating the portion size of a serving to everyday items is an easy way to visualise what a true portion size looks like.
Please remember the list below gives examples of the size, shape, and/or look of one serving of a particular food.
- A rounded handful - one 1/2 cup vegetables or fruit, 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta, or a snack serving of crisps or pretzels
- Woman’s fist - another way of visualising a serving of vegetables, or one piece of whole fruit
- Small handful or golf ball - 1/4 cup of dried fruit
- A matchbox - a 1 oz serving of meat, or a serving of cheese
- Deck of cards, or the palm of your hand (excluding fingers) - a 3oz serving (recommended serving) of meat, fish or poultry, or ten chips/french fries
- Thin paperback book - a 8 oz serving of meat
- Check book - a serving of fish (approximately 3 oz)
- Tennis ball - 1/2 cup of pasta, or a serving of ice cream
- Computer mouse - a medium baked potato
- Compact disc - one serving of pancake or small waffle
- Thumb tip or one dice - one teaspoon of margarine
- A ping pong ball - two tablespoons of peanut butter
- Small milk carton - 8 oz glass of milk
- A baseball - 8 oz cup of yogurt, one cup of beans, or one cup of dry cereal
It is also a good idea to weigh some of your favorite foods, and try to remember what they look like on your plate. You will then be able to see what a 1/2 cup, or 3 oz serving looks like. This will help you to visualise what an appropriate serving looks like, and it could help to prevent overeating.
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May 7, 2007
Portion size is something that I know I am bad at and need to improve to get where I want to be. The sizes you reference are helpful as that does make it easier to translate when you are sitting down for a meal.
May 8, 2007
Yeah it’s just one way of making the choice of food portions a little easier.
I think this is something most people find difficult too. As I mentioned, extra large fast-food portioning etc have made it really difficult to know if we are choosing healthy portions. And also, it’s difficult not to eat everything we’re served, even if we know the calorie content is massive!!
May 8, 2007
I am so guilty of this! I always finish what’s on my plate - no matter how large portion! I need to adjust my portion sizes!!!
May 8, 2007
mypyramid.gov is a great place to look at portion sizes.
In http://mypyramid.gov/pyramid/, click on one of the food groups under “related topics” and choose the “food gallery”.
You’ll find images like these:
http://mypyramid.gov/pyramid/food_library/grains/oatmeal.html
http://mypyramid.gov/pyramid/food_library/vegetables/broccoli.html
Some are more useful than others!
May 9, 2007
Saman - I think we’re all guilty of this!!! My weakness is pudding, especially chocolate, I usually can’t refuse a good dessert!
Family Nutritionist - many thanks for your comment, I regularly visit mypyramid, it really has some great information!
May 9, 2007
We were wondering, how many portions should two people get, out of a 400gm box of Maltesers?
Yum Yum
May 10, 2007
Glenn and Gerry - it would definitely only be one portion….chocolate isn’t really meant for sharing you know!!!!!!!!! LOL
May 11, 2007
This is such a useful post Melanie. We’ve become so disconnected from our portion sizes. Here in Australia the last few years have seen a homewares fashion of buying big plates and big bowls. And yes, they do look beautiful, but it’s encouraged people to eat bigger portions. Clients often laugh at me when I suggest buying smaller crockery, but I find it really helps - you eat less and are still satisfied.
May 13, 2007
Kathryn - welcome!! Thanks for your comment. I totally agree with you about using smaller plates, this is a great piece of advice for clients!
May 16, 2007
This is a good post. I recently watched ‘SuperSize Me’ for the first time and felt very convicted about the size of my portions. It’s good to have a rough guide like you provide here. Thanks.
May 16, 2007
Frank - glad you found this useful! Sometimes I wonder do representations like this only add to the confusion, as it’s another thing to remember, however i suppose it depends on the readers, and their preferred method of remembering things!!