Mon November 9,2009
Do you ever find it difficult to estimate the recommended serving size of food?
What’s one serving of fruit or vegetables? How much is 1 cup of pasta? What does 6 oz. of chicken look like?
I think a lot of people underestimate the amount of food they eat, and overestimate the recommended portion size. And I don’t think I lot of people realize it.
Do I? Let’s take a look….
This morning I opened a box of one of my favorite cereals, Grape-Nuts.
Just looking at the box you see “Natural Whole Grain Wheat with Barley Cereal” and “Power from Grains”.
I wonder how many people read this and think “Hey, this is a healthy cereal so I can fill my bowl to the brim!” Think again.
Don’t get me wrong, Grape-Nuts is a very healthy cereal choice. Just take a look at the label.
Only 1 gram of fat, 7 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of protein!
What I failed to include in this picture was the serving size, which is 1/2 cup. So 1/2 cup of Grape-nuts is 240 calories with fat free milk.
I had a feeling that I always pour more than 1/2 cup of cereal in my bowl, so I decided to whip out the measuring cup this morning to see just how much 1/2 cup of Grape-nuts was.
And there you have it. This bowl is on the smaller side and it didn’t even fill it up half way.
Without the measuring cup, I would have filled this bowl with 3x as much.
Here’s the bowl next to a small box of raisins so you get an idea of the size of it.
I didn’t think this small bowl was going to fill me up, so I added another 1/2 of cup of cereal. The bowl is still barely filled, right?
I also added a handful of raisins.
If I had fresh fruit to add on top, I would have preferred that. I do have bananas but don’t like them on my cereal for some reason :)
So here’s the thing – Yes, Grape-nuts are good for you, but as with most foods, you really need to watch your serving size.
If I had filled my bowl up normally, without measuring, I would have consumed over 500 calories just in cereal. Yes, I should be consuming between 300-500 calories at breakfast, but that’s not a very balanced breakfast.
How could I have balanced it out better?
I could have served myself 1/2 a cup of cereal and added the following:
- A serving of fruit
- A spoonful of nut butter to include healthy fat & more protein
- A hard-boiled egg
Oh wait… I did have a hard boiled egg!
So I did try to balance it out somewhat :)
So the next time you go to fill your bowl of cereal to the brim, I would think again and take a quick look at the recommended serving size on the box (if a balanced diet is what you’re aiming for).
If, like me, you’re not a fan of using a measuring cup or a scale to portion out foods, try relating the portion size to every day items.
Here are a few examples:
- Woman’s fist or baseball—a serving of vegetables or fruit is about the size of your fist
- A rounded handful—about one half cup cooked or raw veggies or cut fruit, a piece of fruit, or ½ cup of cooked rice or pasta – this is a good measure for a snack serving, such as chips or pretzels
- Deck of cards—a serving of meat, fish or poultry or the palm of your hand (don’t count your fingers!) – for example, one chicken breast, ¼ pound hamburger patty or a medium pork chop
- Golf ball or large egg—one quarter cup of dried fruit or nuts
- Tennis ball—about one half cup of ice cream
- Computer mouse—about the size of a small baked potato
- Compact disc—about the size of one serving of pancake or small waffle
- Thumb tip—about one teaspoon of peanut butter
- Six dice—a serving of cheese
- Check book—a serving of fish (approximately 3 oz.)
Are you able to eyeball your portion sizes, or do you measure them? Or do you not really think about it? :)
Enjoy your day!
Definitely not a measurer–except for oats because they are too easy to mess up haha… I don’t think much about serving size–though I know when I “eyeball,” like you, I overestimate the recommended size of a single portion. Thanks for tips on ways to remember portion sizes; I’m way more likely to remember to aim for a piece of chicken the size of a deck of cards than to weight out 4 oz.
GREAT post!! You’ve pretty much pointed out the major problem and reason for the obesity epidemic. Most people assume healthy=I can eat however much I want. That’s just not true. I like to tell people to measure their food a couple times, just to get an idea what a portion should look like. Then go a week or so without measuring, then measure again just to make sure you aren’t slipping up! That’s what I do. I do measure my cereal on most days though.
I am terrible at eyeballing serving sizes- I measure or weigh stuff out and am often surprised how tiny stuff looks once it’s plated up. (Not mentioning any names *cough*BearNakedgranola*cough*) I usually bulk stuff like that out with a big piece of fruit (apple or banana) and some Greek yogurt and use the cereal as a topping rather than a base, if that makes sense.
Yes I am very aware of seving sizes. Since through the years I am almost always dieting. Cereal you have to really watch. I sometimes only eat a 1/4 cup or a 1/3 cup of cereal. I love bananas or any fresh fruit on the cereal. If I don’t have fresh fruit I have dried cranberries.
Oh my gosh! I do avoid measuring at every cost unless I am baking. For me it’s too hard and too time consuming to measure portions at every meal. I do agree though that cereal is such a deceiving food and if you’re gonna measure food, cereal is a good place to start. When I eat cereal or granola I try to trick myself into believing that I am eating more than I really am…for instance…I eye ball the recommended serving size and than fill up on low calorie yogurt. I love Fage greek yogurt because it is so thick & voluminous and gives the illusion of a hearty b-fast. One serving size of fat free Fage yogurt has only 90 calories! Add some fruit, nuts/honey or whatever you like and voila! I’ve gone off on a tangent here but I really liked your post! :)
certain things i’m better at portioning out without having to measure but i still feel more comfortable measuring out and weighing only because i am victim of having more then needed
Great post! I don’t measure very often, but I should! I do measure granola and cereal as I just pour too when I don’t measure… I try to be conscious of serving sizes as eating too much of healthy foods got me into trouble when I gained weight a few years ago…
That is a great post! I wish I paid more attention to the serving size of things. It doesn’t matter what you eat it all depends on the portions. Such a hard t hing for me sometimes!
Cereal is one thing I continue to measure out. It is just so easy to overeat because it doesn’t look like much in a bowl. I like your additions to make your breakfast more balanced.
Great post, but a serving size of cereal is actually 3/4 of a cup, the half a cup serving size was for the milk. So you could have a little more!
The serving sizes actually differ for each cereal. For grape nuts a serving is a half cup!