PORTION CONTROL

Secrets of Healthy Eating and Portion Control

A New American Diet

Our eating habits need help. Fast food, high-calorie desserts, sweet drinks, and more have filled us up -- and out. Most adults and 1 in 3 children in the U.S. are overweight or obese.
Changing the way you eat can be easy. To start, learn about some of the worst food offenders and how to replace them with healthier choices. Then try some portion-control tricks

Calorie-Bomb Food Favorites

Most of our calories come from foods high in fat and sugar. Sweets like cookies and cakes, along with yeast breads, top the list. We also load up on calories in chicken dishes (often breaded and fried), sodas, and energy and sports drinks. Pizza, alcohol, pasta, tortilla dishes, and beef dishes pile on more calories. Unless you count fries and chips, fruits and vegetables don't even make a dent in our daily calorie count

Eat Less

Just two problem foods -- solid fats and added sugars -- count for about 800 of our daily calories. That's almost half the calories an average woman should have in a day. U.S. dietary guidelines say we should limit solid, trans, and saturated fats. Cut back on fast foods and refined grains, like white bread. While you're at it, cut down on sodium (salt), too. Most of us get too much, raising our chances of high blood pressure and heart and kidney disease.

Eat More

Add more nutritious foods to your diet.

• Instead of fatty meats, choose lean protein and seafood. Shoot for at least 8 ounces of fish a week.
• Instead of solid fats like butter or margarine, use olive, canola, and other oils that are good for your waistline and heart.
• Instead of baked goods and cereals with all white or refined grains, make at least half of your grains whole grains.
• Other healthy choices: nonfat or low-fat dairy foods, eggs, beans, and lots of fruits and vegetables.

• The Pizza Problem

  Favorite foods like pizza may just need a makeover. Pizza can have lots of calories, refined grains, and fats. But with a few tweaks, it can be OK:
  
  • Choose a thin, whole-grain crust.
  • Pile on veggies and skip meat.
  • Use low-fat or fat-free cheese or just a sprinkle.
  • Have one small slice and fill the rest of your plate with vegetables.

Serving the Right Size

Start downsizing to healthy portions and your body will, too. Check food labels and restaurant menus for hidden calories. Learn to "eyeball" your food to gauge what’s too much -- and what’s just right

Shrink Your Plate to Lose Weight

You may have grown up being told to "clean your plate." The problem is that dinner plates in homes -- and restaurants – have gotten bigger. And so has the amount of food we put on them. If you clean your plate now, you're probably overeating.

Eating Out? 4 Tips on Portion Size

Restaurants usually serve one person enough food for two or three. But you don't have to eat it all.

• Order a half portion or something from the kid's menu.
• If you order a full-size entree, box up half of it before you start eating.
• Split a dish with a friend.
• Eat a healthy appetizer and soup or salad instead of an entrée.

Your Daily Diet

How many calories you should have depends on your age, your gender, and how active you are. An inactive woman should have 1,600-1,800 calories a day. An active average-sized man should have 2,400-2,800 calories. Have a healthy balance of foods each day:

• 1 1/2 - 2 cups of fruit and 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups of vegetables
• 5-8 ounces of grain, 1/2 from whole grains
• 3 cups of nonfat or low-fat dairy foods
• 5-6 1/2 ounces of protein (meat, beans, and seafood) each day
• No more than 5-7 teaspoons of oils, mostly from plants, fish, and nuts
• 121 calories from solid fats and added sugars

Learn to Eyeball a Portion Size

You don't need to weigh or measure your food every time you eat. Instead, keep a mental image of a deck of cards, a poker chip, a baseball, a hockey puck, a CD, dice, and a lightbulb. This makes it easy for you imagine healthy portion sizes.
 

Rice Lightens Up a Healthy Meal

2 portions of cooked rice = a light bulb
That's 2 servings of grains.
Rice is low in fat and calories. Serve it with a rainbow of healthy vegetables -- like red peppers, bok choy, onion, and carrots -- stir-fried in a little peanut or canola oil.

• Steam rice instead of frying it to keep calories down.
• Try brown rice, which has more fiber than white rice.
• Don't ruin the health benefits of rice by topping it with fried food or heavy sauce.

Go a Little Nuts for Peanut Butter

1 portion of peanut butter = a golf ball
That's 2 tablespoons or two 1-ounce servings of protein.
Peanut butter and jelly is great comfort food. And snacking on peanuts and peanut butter can curb hunger. The trick is to make a little bit go a long way. Peanuts have healthy fat, but it's still fat and can add calories -- 190 for 2 ounces. Jelly adds more.

Baseball-Sized Broccoli and Berries

1 serving of fruits or veggies = 1 baseball or a fist
1 serving of leafy greens = 2 tennis balls
That's a 1-cup serving of fruits or vegetables.
When it comes to fruits and vegetables, eat as much as you want.

• Green, red, and orange foods have lots of nutrition. That includes berries, red bell peppers, tomatoes, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes.
• Dark greens are heart healthy. Try spinach, broccoli, Swiss chard, and kale

Watch Your Dairy Servings

1 portion of cheese = four dice
That's a 1-cup serving of dairy.
Cheese is high in calcium. Regular cheese is also high in fat. One serving of low-fat cheese is one-third the amount of nonfat or low-fat dairy you should have in a day.

• Try low-fat cheeses. They have gotten tastier.
• Watch your portions. Nibble cheese like a mouse.
• Ask for less cheese or low-fat cheese on pizza.

A Healthy Portion of Pasta

1 portion of pasta is 1/2 cup = 1/2 a baseball
That's 1 ounce, or 1/2 cup, of grains.
For healthier pasta:

• If you eat more than one portion of pasta when you eat out, skip the breadbasket. But count the extra pasta as another portion of grains for the day.
• Try whole-grain pasta. You'll fill up on less and get extra fiber.
• Instead of Alfredo or other creamy sauces, choose tomato-based marinara.
• Use low-fat salad dressing when you make pasta salad.

A Handful of Chips

1 ounce = 6 large tortilla chips or 20 potato chips
That's 2 teaspoons of oil and 150 calories
Chips tend to be packed with the things we need to limit: unhealthy fat, refined grains, and sodium. Just one ounce can have nearly half of an entire day's fat for a woman.
Read the label: Baked, multigrain, and vegetable chips -- like carrot and sweet potato -- have more nutrients and may have less fat.

Size Is Everything at the Bakery

1 small muffin = a tennis ball
1/2 a medium bagel = a hockey puck
That's a 1-ounce serving of grains.
Don't overdo it with bagels and bran muffins:

• To save calories, eat a high-fiber English muffin instead.
• Eat half of a large one or buy smaller sizes.
• Make the bagel whole grain. The high fiber will curb hunger later.

How Much Meat Is Too Much?

1 portion of meat or fish = a deck of cards or the palm of your hand
That's 3 ounces of protein.
Eat lean protein -- fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, and beans -- at every meal to help build muscle and lose weight. But you may need less protein than you think. Adults only need 5 to 6 1/2 ounces of protein a day. That could be one egg at breakfast, a handful of nuts (12 almonds or 24 pistachios) mid-day, and 3 ounces of meat for dinner.

"Nutrition is associated with promoting health, and medicine with fighting disease, but no clear line separates nutrution and medicine.  Every major agency involved with health promotion or medicine recommends a varied diet of whole foods as part of a lifestyle that provides the best possible chance for a long and healthy life" (Sizer & Whitney, 2012).

 REFERENCES:

WebMD, (2014) Secrets of Healthy Eating and Portion Control

Sizer, F. & Whitney, E., (2012).  Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies, M Plate Update (12^th ed) Mason, OH: Cengage Learning