Portion Control

Several servings of fruits and vegetables today? Check. Lots of whole grains with my daily fiber? Check. Protein sources that will keep me fuller longer and help build muscle? Check. Sounds pretty healthy to me! So what's the problem?

We all know what we are supposed to be eating on a daily basis, and the things we should be refraining from.

However, it is oftentimes a lot more difficult than we think to maintain our ideal weight and overall health. Knowing what we need to be eating everyday is the first step toward a healthier life.

Learning how to incorporate our daily nutrients into our busy lives is the next hurdle. Once we have conquered these, what comes next? The answer: portion control. While it is hard to go overboard eating fruits and vegetables, we often have a hard time keeping our grains, dairy, proteins, and (especially) our sweets and treats in check.

A serving of chicken breast is about 3 oz, and contains roughly 21g of protein. A serving should be about as big as a tennis ball, or the inside palm of your hand. From a vegetarian perspective, tempeh gives you 28 grams of protein per serving, which is about 1 cup's worth.


This chart, made by Lynn Grieger, gives a great breakdown of animal protein and its vegetarian equivalents. But how often do we actually follow portion sizes? People easily eat two or three hot dogs or double the appropriate portion of cow's milk at any given sitting. Unknowingly this doubles or triples our protein amount for that meal, leaving us with much more protein at the end of the day then most people need.

When it comes to carbohydrate dense food like grains, they are often overeaten in one sitting. Fitsugar.com shows us what a serving of grains should look like for breads, pastas, cereal, cooked grains etc:

• 1 slice of bread (looks like a CD case)
• 1/2 a bagel (the size of a hockey puck)
• 1 cup cereal (looks like two hands cupped together)
• 1/2 cup cooked grain or pasta (one cupped palm)

Oftentimes, a serving of pasta at a restaurant can be two to four times the recommended serving size. Watching those grain portions is a good way to stay healthy.

As for sweets and treats ... well, those are to be taken in moderation to begin with. This is the area people are most likely to slip up in as treats do not really have a set amount. Eating a 1/2 cup of ice cream per sitting is advised, but there is no real guide to how many sweets people should be consuming.

Therefore, it is much easier to go overboard on ice cream or cake than it is on protein sources. The absolute key to portion control regarding sweets is self control! Here are some helpful tips for keeping your portions under control:

1. Break Leftovers Down: Separate leftovers into individual sized containers to avoid dipping into giant servings of leftovers.
2. Say Yes To Salad: Load up a salad with vegetables before lunch or dinner. This will keep you from overeating at the next meal!
3. Single Out Trigger Foods: Buy snack foods and make sure to separate them into individual serving sizes, as it's hard to keep your hands out of a bag of chips once you have started!
4. Master Mini Meals: Eat several smaller meals throughout the day to keep your blood sugar steady, and hunger at bay, instead of three large meals. This will keep you from overeating later.
5. Be a Kid at Heart (or Tummy?): Order a kid's sized meal when you go out to eat!
6. Treat Yourself! Indulge yourself with those "forbidden foods" every now and then, or your cravings could lead to overeating of it later.

 

Nutrition Links:

• Vegetarianism 101
  
• Living the Raw Life
  
• Portion Control
  
• Vitamins
  
• Minerals
  
• Fruits
  
• Vegetables