Portion Control

[Kenmau Chow]

At 12:10 PM 4/2/97 EST, you wrote:


>Do you have tips on portion control?

>

>I am working on a portion control article for Food for Health Newsletter and

>would like to hear what you are recommending to patients, clients and

students

>on this topic. If you have a favorite resource on this subject, please let me

>know that too.

>

>As always, I will post a summary of what is sent to me to the list.

>

>Thank you,

>Judy Doherty

>Executive Editor

>Food for Health Newsletter

>


In the April 2/97 Globe and Mail newspaper, there was an article in The
Middle Kingdom column titled "A handy way to watch what you eat".  One of
the points they mentioned was that we tend to think of food in visual
terms, and the article suggests a measuring device that uses your hand as a
guide:  

A closed fist is equivalent to one cup, which equals about two servings of
raw vegetables.
A piece of fruit small enough that you can get your hand around it (about
the size of a tennis ball).
A 100 gram piece of meat is about the size of your palm (half that, 50
grams, is about the right serving size for a child).
A portion of cheese, peanut butter or mayonnaise the size of your thumb
(realistic, although these are not the food guide servings).