To control and maintain your weight, you need to eat the right food choices in the right portions. These tips allow you to approximate portion sizes to avoid overindulging.
Foods from the bread and pasta / noodle group. This food group can become a problem. People tend to eat too much starch, like pasta and bread. The following is a general inventory of serving quantities to help you approximate the proper servings.
– 1 cup of potatoes / pasta / rice = scoop of ice cream
– 1 pancake = CD size
– 1 cup of cereal = the size of your fist
– 1 slice of bread = 1 serving
Dairy products. Caution is advised when it comes to dairy intake, as this food group often contains a lot of fat. The following are serving size comparisons for the dairy group to allow you to restrict your intake.
– 1 1/2 ounces cheese = 3 dominoes
– 1 ounce of cheese = your thumb
– 1 cup ice cream = hard baseball
Vegetables. You can overeat any food group, even things like vegetables, which are very healthy. Here are some tools to help you compare serving sizes and calculate your daily vegetable servings.
– 1 cup salad = fist size
– 1 baked potato = fist size
– Half a cup of broccoli = one light bulb
– Half cup serving = 6 asparagus, 7-8 baby carrots or a corn on the cob
Fruits. Foods in the fruit group are naturally loaded with sugar. Therefore, you also need to be careful about serving amounts. Here are some comparisons for you on the different serving sizes of fruits.
– Half a cup of grapes = one light bulb
– Half a cup of fruit salad = stuffed cupcake wrapper
– A medium fruit = size of a tennis ball
A source of protein, such as meat or soy. In food categories, meat is easily over-consumed. People frequently consume twice the RDA in this category. Be sure to stick to portion size comparisons so you can determine how much protein or meat you will need on your plate.
– 2 tablespoons peanut butter = golf ball
– 1 tablespoon peanut butter = the top of the thumb
– 3 ounces of cooked meat (including fish) = deck of cards
– 1 serving of chicken (3 ounces) = chicken leg or thigh
Fatty foods and snack options. It is important to limit your consumption of junk food. {Only a small amount of fat and sugar actually works to increase your girth. Size comparisons will help limit your intake of processed sugars and fats.
– 1 teaspoon butter = top of your thumb
– 2 tablespoons salad dressing = golf ball
– 1 ounce walnuts / caramel = small handful
– 1 ounce chips / pretzels = two small handfuls
– Half a cup of chips / cookies / popcorn = large handful
– One third cup of chips / cookies / popcorn = medium handful
Calculating a serving size is useless if you can’t remember the recommended servings that are suggested for the food groups on any given day. Look it up in the last recommendation chart of the food pyramid (based on your gender and your age) to find out how much is a healthy portion to consume in the foods of the groups mentioned above. Then use the included serving quantity comparisons to make sure you’re not overdoing it.