Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Portions and Healthy Snacks

I am always amazed at how much food you get when you go out to eat. The sad thing is I usually eat it all as I am a glorified member of the "clean plate club". However, here are some guidelines when trying to measure how much an actual serving is when reading the dietary information on food.
Baseball: a serving of vegetables or fruit
Rounded handful: 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta and a good measure for pretzels and chips
Deck of Cards: serving of meat except fish
Golf ball: serving of dried nuts or dried fruit
Tennis ball: about 1/2 cup of ice cream
Computer mouse: small baked potato
Compact disc: one pancake or waffle serving
Thumb tip: 1 tsp of peanut butter
Six dice: serving of cheese
Check book: serving of fish

It is also a good idea when you are first starting out, to have at least one thing at every meal that you can have have seconds of so you don't leave the table hungry, such as broccoli or salad with fat free dressing or cucumbers.

1 comments:

Chad Basham said...

There was an experiment done at Cornell University where they had two sets of diners. One set as given a bowl with a finite amount of soup in it. The other group was given a rigged up a soup bowl with a hidden tube that imperceptibly refilled the bowl as a person slurped. The diners treated to an endless supply of soup ate 73 percent more than their single-bowl companions. Both groups reported being equally as full. It is very important to pay attention to our how much we are eating.

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