Prevent Portion Distortion

We dietitians like to say that all foods fit into a healthy diet. That’s essentially true, but serving size matters – a lot.

People like it when they hear that they can eat what they like and, for the most part, maintain good health. The problem is, most of us have a problem restraining ourselves when it comes to the foods we love, often resulting in overweight, clogged arteries, high blood pressure, and a host of other conditions linked to poor diet.

Portion sizes have been on the rise for decades (think: 32-ounce sodas, and ice cream cones as big as your head), contributing to Portion Distortion. While Portion Distortion is not a medical condition, it is a term to describe how out of touch most of us are with the amount of food we should eat.

Oddly enough, most people don’t go overboard on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free milk.  In my experience, Portion Distortion most often applies to low-nutrient choices such as French fries, soft drinks, cookies, cake, candy, fatty meat, butter, ice cream, and the like. No matter what the food, it’s easy to consume a mere 100 or so more extra calories every day without knowing it.  That may not sound like much, but even that small of an incremental change in caloric intake can add 10 pounds to your frame in the course of a year!

The good news is that there is a cure for Portion Distortion. First, find out exactly what the proper portion sizes are for foods from each of the food groups by visiting www.MyPyramid.gov. This is the site of MyPyramid, the government’s guide to healthy eating.

Next, weigh and measure your food for a week (and keep a food diary) to determine what, and how much, you’re eating.  Compare that to what you should be eating according to MyPyramid.  While this is a potentially tedious exercise, it is particularly helpful when you’re puzzled by weight gain, or when you’re wondering why you can’t fit into your jeans. I do it every time I’ve gained (always mysteriously, of course!) a few pounds. It helps to get you on track, and keeps you there.

Chances are, you won’t be lugging your food scale, measuring cups, and spoons with you to the mall, on vacation, or on a business trip.  This handy chart will help you estimate serving sizes when you can’t determine portions with traditional equipment.

This amount of food: 3 ounces cooked meat, poultry, or fish
Looks like the size of: A deck of playing cards

This amount of food: 1 cup cooked, chopped vegetables, fruit, cooked: pasta, rice, and potatoes, breakfast cereal, ice cream
Looks like the size of: A tennis ball

This amount of food: 1 ounce hard cheese, 1 tablespoon of butter, oil, salad dressing, margarine, peanut butter
Looks like the size of: Your thumb

This amount of food: 1 teaspoon of margarine, butter, oil or salad dressing
Looks like the size of: The tip of your thumb to the first knuckle

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under Moms Best Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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