In her presentation at the January Women’s Connection luncheon, Dr. Elaine Harrington talked about the importance of family fitness.
One key component of family fitness is eating healthy. Many of us probably don’t realize it, but every day we’re eating way more than we think or should.
To start, it’s important to know the difference between a serving and a portion. According to the US Department of Agriculture, a portion can be thought of as the amount of a specific food an individual eats for dinner, snack, or other eating occasion. A serving is a unit of measure used to describe the total amount of foods recommended daily from each of the food groups.
Dr. Harrington gave a great example of how we may be overeating without even realizing it. If you go to an Italian restaurant and order a plate of spaghetti, the portion size you will be given will likely be 7-8 serving sizes according to nutritional guidelines. So that’s 6 more servings of spaghetti than you should be eating at that meal.
Here are some tips from Dr. Harrington to keep in mind when thinking about the correct size of food portions:
- Your fist is about the size of one cup or 1 ounce of cereal
- The palm of your hand is about the same size as 3 ounces of meat, fish or chicken
- The tip of your thumb is about the size of 1 ounce of cheese
- A small handful of nuts is about 1 ounce. For chips and pretzels, 2 handfuls equals 1 ounce
- A handful of shredded cheese is about one ounce
By being knowledgeable about food portions and servings, you can make small changes to your eating habits that will pay off in the long run.
