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HomeTopics...NutritionServing Sizes
Understanding Food Serving SizesFor people with who are losing weight, trying to make healthy adjustments to their diet, or attempting to control medical conditions, such as diabetes, through diet, watching calorie intake is a major priority. Some people, especially for those using diet to help control disease, are asked by their doctors to measure the amount and type of food eaten. For many, this can become a hassle, particularly when particular servings of food are restricted to a certain number of ounces.
Most people don't have a device for measuring such an exact amount, so they need to resort to approximations of a serving size. Here are a few ways to approximate your serving sizes:
If you are trying to lose or maintain weight, select the low calorie foods in each category. High calorie foods should play a very small role in your healthy diet.
Serving Sizes for Grain, Pasta, BreadThis group of food is the foundation of that fancy food pyramid you've most likely heard about. In this food group, you'll find food items such as rice, pasta, bagels, and cereal. Six to eleven servings of this food group a day is recommended. But how much is a single serving of food? Well, each serving contains about 15 grams of carbohydrates, but that still isn't very helpful, is it? Below is a list of grains, pastas, and breads and the amount that is approximately one serving.
A Note on Selecting Grains, Breads and Pasta: When making a selection, lean towards the complex carbohydrates: whole grain breads and pastas. Avoid those containing simple carbohydrates, such as refined flour (even if it is enriched!).
Fruit and Vegetable Serving SizesFruits and vegetables make up the next level of the food pyramid. While some may remember fruits and vegetables as one group, they've now been separated.
Three to five servings of fruit (apples, oranges, grapes, grapefruit, etc.) a day is recommended. Each fruit serving has about 15 grams of carbohydrates. Below is a list of fruits that approximate one serving.
You should also eat three to five servings of vegetables (lettuce, celery, spinach, etc.) a day, but each serving of vegetables only has 5 grams of carbohydrates:
Dairy Serving SizeDairy is an important part of a healthy diet, but watch your intake because many dairy products are high in fat and carbohydrates. Two to four servings of dairy a day is recommended (each serving contains 12 grams of carbohydrates and 300mg/30% of the recommended daily amount of calcium). Below are examples foods that equal one serving of dairy.
Protein Serving SizesProtein is an important part of a balanced diet. You should have about four to eight ounces of protein a day. When choosing meats avoid the skin and fatty cuts. Stick with skinless poultry, fish, and leaner cuts of meat. Of course you can get your protein in other ways, such as by eating tofu and peanut butter. Here are a few examples that equal 1 ounce of protein.
Three ounces of meat is about the size of a deck of cards.
Fat Serving SizeFats are high calorie foods and should represent the smallest portion of a healthy diet. You should have no more than two to four servings a day. One serving is approximately:
Monitoring Servings of FoodThe types of foods you eat and the serving sizes of each food will determine the number of calories and nutrients you receive. Try to eat plenty of healthy, low calorie foods such as whole grain, fruits and vegetables while limiting the number of high calorie foods (fats and fatty meats) eaten. Monitoring the number of servings of each food category is an important part of maintaining a healthy diet. Now it's more than simply watching what you eat, healthy eating also means watching how much you eat.
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