Coffee and a bagel used to be a modest breakfast. No more. Twenty years ago, a standard bagel was about three inches in diameter and 140 calories. Today’s bagel is twice as big and packs a hefty 350 calories—without the cream cheese! An 8-ounce coffee with whole milk and sugar is a mere 45 calories. Today’s more popular mocha coffees, with steamed milk and syrup, are 16 ounces and 350 calories. As food portions have ballooned, so have we as a nation.
“We have become so ‘super sized’ it’s difficult to define normal any more,” says Johns Hopkins diabetes educator Christine McKinney. The good news: learning some simple techniques to gauge portion size can be a simple and effective way to cut calories and shed unwanted pounds. Here’s how.
Servings vs. portions
To avoid the urge to super size, start by learning the meaning of a “serving”: it’s the amount of food recommended for healthy eating, and it’s listed on the nutrition facts label. Understanding this can help you determine how many carbohydrates are in your meal and the amount you should be eating to best manage your diabetes.
By contrast, a “portion” is the amount of a specific food you choose to eat. Portions vary from person to person and with each food. For example, you may eat smaller portions of cauliflower than of broccoli, depending on your preference. Portion size is influenced by how hungry you feel and even by culture and tradition, such as at holiday meals.
The secret is to ensure that your portions—what you choose to eat—are aligned with recommended serving sizes, as defined by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). It’s really not that hard to do!
Don’t exceed the serving size
The ADA’s Food Guide Pyramid describes serving sizes from different food groups recommended for health and glycemic control. Use these serving sizes to plan your meals, to count carbs or exchanges and to compare to serving sizes on packaged foods.
For example, the ADA’s Food Pyramid recommends that you eat 6-11 servings of whole grains daily. But this doesn’t mean eating as much as you like 6-11 times. Each recommended serving size might be as small as a slice of bread or 1/3 cup of rice or pasta. One large bowl of pasta could add up to as much as three servings.
“Once you start doing it, it becomes second nature,” McKinney says. “After a while you’ll be able to eyeball a potato and decide that, if it equals two servings, you’re just going to eat half.”
Tools to quantify servings
Use measuring cups for a couple of weeks to ensure that your portions are aligned with proper serving sizes. “This will help you learn what a serving size looks like on your plate at home,” says McKinney. You can use these familiar visual aids to estimate portion sizes:
- A three-ounce serving of meat or poultry is about the size of a deck of cards.
- A serving of baked potato is about the size of your fist.
- A three-ounce serving of grilled or baked fish is about the size of a checkbook.
Check out the National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s Web page to download a card that illustrates serving sizes. Post it on your refrigerator or keep it in your purse or jacket pocket for easy reference.
Rate your plate
Another simple visual aid is the ADA’s “rate your plate” approach. Draw an imaginary line through the center of your plate. Then draw another line to divide one of the halves into two fourths. Here’s what a balanced meal would look like:
- One-fourth of your plate should be filled with grains or starchy foods such as rice, pasta, potatoes, corn or peas.
- Another fourth should be lean protein (meat, fish, poultry or tofu).
- Fill the remaining half with non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, salad, tomatoes or cauliflower.
Add a glass of nonfat milk and a small roll or piece of fruit and you have a portion-controlled, balanced meal. You may need to count the carbohydrates or exchanges in your meal so you can be sure your insulin and exercise balance your intake.
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- Don’t feel deprived. Eat three meals at regular times each day. Use smaller dishes to make portions appear larger. Eat slowly to enjoy every bite.
- Plan in advance. Think about why you’re going to a restaurant or social event. If you treat yourself to that crab cake, skip dessert. Split your entrée with your dinner companion or box up half of it before you begin eating.
- Design a healthy plate. At the buffet or dinner table, fill most of your plate with healthier items, like vegetables or salad. Leave a smaller space for a treat.
- Have some delicious exercise for dessert! Exercising after a meal is a great, natural way to lower blood glucose and maintain a healthy weight. Go for an after-dinner walk or get on the treadmill before sitting down to watch TV.
- Portion control applies to alcohol, too. The ADA recommends no more than one daily drink for a woman and two daily drinks for a man. One drink equals one 5-ounce glass of wine, one 12-ounce beer or 1.5 ounces of liquor a day.
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For a better idea on how portions have grown over the past 20 years, see the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s “Portion Distortion” quiz.
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