HARTandYVONNE.com

This is from the Week 2 “Portion Smart” booklet ….

BASIC TRAINING ABOUT SMART PORTION SIZES

Introduction: We want to make it easy for you to give your eyes some “basic training” about smart portion sizes. Serving sizes have gotten bigger - from the number of ounces in a soft drink to the size of a muffin or hamburger. As an easy-to-follow guide, this booklet can help you to manage how much you eat.

Give it a try!

Use the guides in “Portion Smart” to check out what a reasonable serving size looks like. We’ve made it easy by giving you familiar objects, such as a light bulb or a computer mouse, to use as a visual image for the dimensions of a serving. Even your own hand can be used to serve up a smart portion!

- A one-cup serving is the size of a tennis ball, if you can imagine it in a ball
- A small bagel, hamburger roll, or large homemade muffin is about 3″ in diameter.
- A large bagel, a standard slice of bread, or a large store-bought muffin is about 4″ or about the size of a CD or DVD

- In general, a small piece of fruit is about the size of a tennis ball, your fist, or a light bulb.
- A large (5″) baked potato is about the same length as a light bulb
- When it comes to side dishes, a scoop or 1/2 cup is roughly equivalent to a small computer mouse

- Use a standard dinner plate as a guid to what a reasonable serving size looks like
- A portion of salmon or halibut steak, or two pieces of sushi is about the length and width of an audio cassette

- For a portion of meat, keep the image of the palm of your hand, a deck of cards, or an audio cassette in your hand

- 1 oz. cubed cheese is equivalent in size to six small dice
- 1/4 cup shredded cheese resembles a golf ball
- An appropriate cheese slice is the standard slice available in the dairy case of your local grocery

- One way to control portions is to buy snack foods in single-serving sizes, however if you prefer to buy the big bags, a portion would be ‘about a handful’

- Use side plates, cocktail napkins, and small sundae glasses as a guide to portion size

- Varying in both thickness of the crust and diameter of the pie, it’s important to know what a portion of pizza looks like
- Use a normal dinner plate as a guide
- 1/8 of 12″ pie - takes up about 1/3 of the plate
- 1/12 of 16″ pie - takes up about 1/2 of the plate
- 1/8 of 16″-18″ pie - takes up about 2/3 of the plate

- A standard 10″ dinner plate serves as a guide as to how big portions should be
- you should be able to see the outer edge of all your plates