Estimating food portions

H

honeybunch1

Cathlete
A goody from Men's Health:

How Much Are You Eating?
Easy ways to estimate serving sizes

Doling out food portions for a recipe or a diet plan is always a crapshoot; we can barely tell 3 ounces from 10. Worse, we simply shovel down restaurant chow until we're asked to leave. Nutritionists helped us compile a dozen easy conversions for standard servings. (The nutritional information may vary by brand and type of food.)

Food portion: 1 oz sausage link (54 cal, 5 g fat) Same size as: shotgun shell

Food portion: 1 tsp butter (34 cal, 4 g fat) Same size as: tip of thumb

Food portion: 1/2 c mashed potatoes (112 cal, 5 g fat) Same size as: 1/2 apple

Food portion: 1 oz cubed Swiss cheese (107 cal, 8 g fat) Same size as: 4 dice

Food portion: 1/2 c cooked spaghetti (99 cal, 1 g fat) Same size as: fist

Food portion: 3 oz beef (219 cal, 13 g fat) Same size as: deck of cards

Food portion: 1/2 c ice cream (143 cal, 7 g fat) Same size as: tennis ball

Food portion: 4 oz dry spaghetti (422 cal, 2 g fat) Same size as: the diameter of a quarter (when held tightly together and viewed from the end)

Food portion: 1 c chicken-noodle soup (175 cal, 6 g fat) Same size as: baseball

Food portion: 1 Tbsp blue-cheese dressing (77 cal, 8 g fat) Same size as: 1/2 golf ball

Food portion: 8 oz lasagna (270 cal, 8 g fat) Same size as: 2 hockey pucks

Food portion: 1 oz mozzarella (80 cal, 6 g fat) Same size as: Ping-Pong ball
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My own portion control (or lack of it!):
Donut holes - 20! The package says 4, but we know that can't be right!

I also have to disagree with the ice cream portion - one pint is more like it!

"You can't win them all - but you can try." - Babe Zaharias http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/musik/music-smiley-004.gif[/img]
 
That's really cool - I've also heard

1 cup - your fist

1 oz, or 1 T - your thumb

your hand w/o fingers and thumb is 4 oz (or one portion) of meat or whatever it is you're eating

I'm going to print yours out and put it on my fridge!
 
Too funny - I mean who really measures their food as compared to a shotgun shell?!?! Really? They couldn't find anything else to measure it against?
 
It WAS in Men's Health, after all! What could we compare it to, a tube of lipstick?

"You can't win them all - but you can try." - Babe Zaharias http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/musik/music-smiley-004.gif[/img]
 
Did you hear about the new research that shows that people decide how much to eat based upon cues from the environment much more than was ever previously thought? Quote from the NYTimes article about the study:

"Although people think they make 15 food decisions a day on average, his research shows the number is well over 200. Some are obvious, some are subtle. The bigger the plate, the larger the spoon, the deeper the bag, the more we eat. But sometimes we decide how much to eat based on how much the person next to us is eating, sometimes moderating our intake by more than 20 percent up or down to match our dining companion."

The funny part is everyone is SURE they are exempt from this phenomenon.

"When it comes to the slippery issues of snacking and portion control, no one thinks he or she is the schmo who digs deep into the snack bowl without thinking, or orders dessert just because a restaurant plays a certain kind of music. People will swear they aren’t influenced by the size of a package or how much variety there is on a buffet or the fancy name on a can of beans, but they are,” Dr. Wansink said. “Every time.”

-Nancy
 
The pasta measurements always confuse me, because when it's dry/uncooked, it's measured in ounces--but I'd love to know how to eyeball the dry pasta so that when it's cooked, it comes out to be 1/2 cup. Anyone have any tricks?

Jennifer
 
I use that trick of using small plates, bowls, spoons, etc., and I DO think it helps. However, I don't recall EVER noticing how much a dinner companion was eating and feeling I had to keep up! The only time I order dessert is if it's on Saturday and if I have to use up a gift certificate! I went to Olive Garden last week and got a piece of cake costing as much as 2 whole cakes at the local grocery store! That's criminal!

"You can't win them all - but you can try." - Babe Zaharias http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/musik/music-smiley-004.gif[/img]
 
Jennifer, I do not know how to answer your question directly. But, I weigh my pasta before I cook it and it weighs approximately double once it is cooked. So, if you are wanting a 6 oz portion, based on the calories etc on your pasta pack, you should cook 3 oz. I honestly think that 1/2 cup of cooked pasta would be about 125-150 grams or about 2.5-3 ounces of uncooked pasta (or 1/4 cup). Umm, I hope I didn't confuse you!

annie
 
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