Re-calibrate your Portions
by Maggie Davis

The Oxford Dictionary definitions of “portion” include:
1)   a part or share
2)   the amount of food allotted to one person
3)   one’s destiny or lot in life

In real life, the portions you eat can be both “your share” and your health destiny. So, in a sense, you are not only what you eat but how much you eat.

Studies show that the larger a portion a person is served, the larger percentage of food is consumed. One nationally known pasta restaurant serves a five cup standard portion of angel hair pasta (for a total of 1000cal). How much more of that would you eat compared with a one cup portion (200 cal)? This increase in what is considered a standard restaurant portion is now referred to as “portion distortion”.

The manufacturer’s stated portion on a food label is purely arbitrary and is not necessarily determined by a Nutritionist. And it may not be the right portion for you. Often an entire package of a food or beverage is the usual amount consumed by most individuals, but often the label will give the portion as half or a fourth of the package… Don’t forget to multiply the servings listed if you consume the whole container. For example, nuts are a nutritious food but while one 1-oz serving contains 170 calories and 15 grams of fat, eating half of a 12-oz can while watching a baseball game will give you six times that amount (for a total of 1020 calories and 90 grams of fat.)

Click here for a visual chart of portion sizes:
http://www.metabolicfingerprint.com/sizematters.pdf

Our favorite scale is the Computerized Diet Food Scale. It’s a state of the art scale that has approximately 3000 foods stored in it. Simply look up the code number for the food and weight it. The results include not only calories, but also carbs, fat, cholesterol and more. You can even total your intake for the day.

Link to purchase HLink to purchase Healthzilla scale:
http://www.healthzilla.com/feature.asp