 |
| Who's Online
|
|
We have 6 guests and 0 members online
You are an anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here
network health sites
|
|
|
*tip*
Much of your health expenses are covered by insurance. Are you looking for low cost individual health insurance? Click the link and get a free insurance quote (no obligations!)
|
|
|
About Food Portions - 'Just Enough for you'
(5926 total words in this text)
(2504 Reads)
| |
Have
you noticed that the size of muffins, candy bars, and soft drinks has
grown over the years? How about portions of restaurant foods like pasta
dishes, steaks, and french fries? As portion sizes grow, people tend to
eat more-often more than they need to stay healthy.
Larger food portions have more calories. Eating more calories than you
need may lead to weight gain. Too much weight gain can put you at risk
for weight-related diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some
cancers.
Managing
your weight calls for more than just choosing a healthful variety of foods
like vegetables, fruits, grains (especially whole grains), beans, and
low-fat meat, poultry, and dairy products. It also calls for looking at
how much and how often you eat. This brochure shows you
how to use serving sizes to help you eat just enough for you.
|
|
|
A
"portion" is how much food you choose to eat, whether in a restaurant,
from a package, or in your own kitchen. A "serving" is a standard
amount set by the U.S. Government, or sometimes by others for recipes,
cookbooks, or diet plans. There are two commonly used standards for serving
sizes:
 The
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Guide Pyramid
is a healthy eating plan for people ages 2 and over. It shows the recommended
number of servings to eat from each of five food groups every day to meet
your nutrition needs, and it defines serving sizes. (For more information,
see The Food Guide Pyramid under Additional Reading.)
The
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Nutrition Facts Label is printed
on most packaged foods. It tells you how many calories and how much fat,
carbohydrate, sodium, and other nutrients are in one serving of the food.
The serving size is based on the amount of food people say they usually
eat in one sitting. This size is often different than the serving sizes
in the Food Guide Pyramid.
|
|
For
foods that don't have a Nutrition Facts label, such as ground beef, use
a kitchen scale to measure the food in ounces (according to the Food Guide
Pyramid, one serving of meat, chicken, turkey, or fish is 2 to 3 ounces).
|
 The
portion size that you are used to eating may be equal to two or three
standard servings. Take a look at this Nutrition Facts label for cookies.
The serving size is two cookies, but if you eat four cookies, you are
eating two servings-and double the calories, fat, and other nutrients
in a standard serving.
To
see how many servings a package contains, check the "servings per
container" listed on the Nutrition Facts label. You may be surprised
to find that small containers often have more than one serving inside.
Learning
to recognize standard serving sizes can help you judge how much you
are eating. When cooking for yourself, use measuring cups and spoons
to measure your usual food portions and compare them to standard serving
sizes from Nutrition Facts labels for a week or so. Put the measured
food on a plate before you start eating. This will help you see what
one standard serving of a food looks like compared to how much you normally
eat.
 Another
way to keep track of your portions is to use a food diary. Writing down
when, what, how much, where, and why you eat can help you be aware of
the amount of food you are eating and the times you tend to eat too
much. The chart below shows what 1 day of a person's food diary might
look like.
After
reading the food diary, you can see that this person chose sensible
portion sizes for breakfast and lunch-she ate to satisfy her hunger.
She had a large chocolate bar in the afternoon for emotional reasons-boredom,
not in response to hunger. If you tend to eat when you are not hungry,
try doing something else, like taking a break to walk around the block
or call a friend, instead of eating.
By
8 p.m., this person was very hungry and ate large portions of higher-fat,
higher-calorie foods. If she had made an early evening snack of fruit
or pretzels, she might have been less hungry at 8 p.m. and eaten less.
She also may have eaten more than she needed because she was at a social
event, and was not paying attention to how much she was eating. Through
your diary, you can become aware of the times and reasons you eat too
much, and try to make different choices in the future.
|
|
|
|
THURSDAY
|
|
Time
|
Food
|
Amount
|
Place
|
Hunger/Reason
|
|
|
8am
|
Coffee,
black
Banana
Low-fat
yogurt
|
6
fl. oz.
1
medium
1
cup
|
Home
|
Slightly
hungry
|
|
|
|
|
1pm
|
Turkey
and cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread with mustard, tomato, and lettuce
Potato
chips, baked
Water
|
3
oz. turkey, 1 slice American cheese, 2 slices bread
1 small bag, 1/2 oz.
16
fl. oz.
|
Work
|
Hungry
|
|
|
|
|
3pm
|
Chocolate
bar
|
King
size (40z.)
|
Work
|
Not
hungry/bored
|
|
|
|
|
8pm
|
Fried
mozzarella sticks
Chicken
Caesar-Salad
Breadsticks
Apple
pie with vanilla ice cream
Soft
drink
|
4
each
2
cups lettuce, 6 oz. chicken, 6 tbs. dressing, 3/4 cup croutons
2
large
1/8
of 9-inch pie, 1 cup ice cream
12
fl. oz.
|
Restaurant
|
Very
hungry/out with friends
|
|
| |
|
|
|
How
can I control portions at home?
|
You
do not need to measure and count everything you eat for the rest of
your life-just long enough to recognize standard serving sizes. Try
these other ideas to help you control portions at home:
-
Take
a standard serving out of the package and eat it off a plate
instead of eating straight out of a large box or bag.
-
Avoid
eating in front of the TV or while busy with other activities.
Pay attention to what you are eating and fully enjoy the smell and
taste of your foods.
-
Eat
slowly so your brain can get the message that your stomach is
full.
-
 Take
seconds of vegetables or salads instead of higher-fat, higher-calorie
parts of a meal such as meats or desserts.
-
When
cooking in large batches, freeze food that you will not serve right
away. This way, you won't be tempted to finish eating the whole
batch before the food goes bad. And you'll have ready-made food
for another day. Freeze in single-meal-sized containers.
-
 Try
to eat three sensible meals at regular times throughout the
day. Skipping meals may lead you to eat larger portions of high-calorie,
high-fat foods at your next meal or snack. Eat breakfast every day.
-
Keep
snacking to a minimum. Eating many snacks throughout the day
may lead to weight gain.
-
When
you do have a treat like chips, cookies, or ice cream, eat only
one serving, eat it slowly, and enjoy it!
|
|
Is
getting more food for your money always a good value?
|
 Have
you noticed that it only costs a few cents more to get a larger size
of fries or soft drink? Getting a larger portion of food for just a
little extra money may seem like a good value, but you end up with more
food and calories than you need.
Before
you buy your next "value combo," be sure you are making the
best choice for your health and your wallet. If you are with
someone else, share the large-size meal. If you are eating alone, skip
the special deal and just order what you need.
|
|
How
can I control portions when eating out?
|
Research
shows that the more often a person eats out, the more body fat he or she
has. Try to prepare more meals at home. Eat out and get take-out foods
less often. When you do eat away from home, try these tips to help you
control portions:
-
Share
your meal, order a half-portion, or order an appetizer as a
main meal.
-
Take
half or more of your meal home. You can even ask for your half-meal
to be boxed up before you begin eating so you will not be tempted
to eat more than you need.
-
Stop
eating when you begin to feel full. Focus on enjoying the setting
and your friends or family for the rest of the meal.
-
Avoid
large beverages, such as "supersize" soft drinks. They
have a large number of calories. Order the small size, choose a calorie-free
beverage, or drink water with a slice of lemon.
-
 When
traveling, bring along nutritious foods that will not spoil such
as fresh fruit, small cans of fruit, peanut butter and jelly (spread
both thin) sandwiches, whole grain crackers, carrot sticks, air-popped
popcorn, and bottled water. If you stop at a fast food restaurant,
choose one that serves salads, or order the small burger with lettuce
and tomato. Have water or nonfat milk with your meal instead of a
soft drink. If you want french fries, order the small size.
Remember...
 The
amount of calories you eat affects your weight and health. In addition
to selecting a healthful variety of foods, look at the size of the portions
you eat. Choosing nutritious foods and keeping portion sizes sensible
may help you reach and stay at a healthy weight.
|
|
|
[ Back to Nutrition Related Articles | Sections index ] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
