Use common items to keep food portions in control

By LAURA GIOVANELLI
Winston-Salem Journal

It's far easier to picture how much of something you really should be eating when you talk about portion size in terms of everyday objects, such as tennis and golf balls, CDs and DVDs, and, most conveniently, your fist and thumb -- handy, pardon for the pun, for most of us.

Dietitians are reminding us what proper portion sizes look like -- really.

"You always have your hand with you," said Penny Riordan, a registered dietitian at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"People are very visual, and to have the words and the visual at the same time, it connects," said Amy Fanjoy, a dietitian at BestHealth Community Health Resource Center in Winston-Salem. "I think for the majority of people, it helps them."

Many people know that a portion of meat or poultry is about the size of a deck of cards, or the palm of a woman's hand. (A bar of soap is another good visual.) That equals about 3 ounces. Men can have slightly more -- 4 ounces.

Properly portioned servings of fish are 3 and 4 ounces, too, but if you get a fillet (flounder, trout, etc.) instead of a steak (such as tuna), it should be the size and dimensions of checkbook or a PDA.

One serving of mayonnaise is about the size of the tip of your thumb. One serving of butter or margarine is one teaspoon, or the size of a die.

Multiply that by three dice, and you have a serving of cheese, about 1 to 1-1/2 ounces.

Prepare to have your mind blown -- a baked potato should be about the size of a computer mouse. When was the last time you saw a baked potato that small? What you get in a restaurant -- or even the russets you pick up at the grocery store yourself -- is likely at least twice that size, and easily larger. "A lot of times it's two or three servings," Fanjoy said.

Bagels should be about the size of a hockey puck. Few are, Fanjoy said, so slice them in half to bring them down to size. The cream cheese on top? At most, use a tablespoon.

Even fruit has been super-sized, Franjoy said. A properly proportioned apple, peach and the like should be about the size of a baseball. If it's bigger -- think about those weirdly large Granny Smith apples in the produce section -- cut it in half. Pears should be about the size of a standard light bulb. "I tell people that too much of a good thing is a bad thing," Fanjoy said.

"It's still calories."

One serving of fresh vegetables, or cut-up fruit or berries, is 1 cup -- that's about the size of a woman's clenched fist, or seven cotton balls. A serving of cooked vegetables is about half that.

If you're looking for guidance on what one serving of dried fruit looks like, imagine a golf ball.

At most, how much peanut butter should you be spreading on that sandwich? About a pingpong ball's worth, or 2 tablespoons.

Waffles should be about 4 inches, or about the size of a CD or DVD. "So when you're looking at those Belgian waffles, you're getting about four servings," Fanjoy said.

Be wary of serving-size recommendations on packaged food. While Riordan was talking to me, she looked at the back of a can of almonds. It suggested that a serving size was 3 tablespoons, which is 16 grams of fat. Women should aim for 45 to 60 grams of fat in a day, while men can have up to 75 grams. So, if you're using that can as guidance, "that's a third of your fat for the whole day," Riordan said.