CHAPTER 10

Portion Control

PART 1 The Problem with Portions

Twenty years ago a typical turkey sandwich, purchased in a deli, contained about 320 calories. Today the average turkey sandwich contains 820 calories. In those days, a regular-size portion of French fries from a fast-food restaurant contained 210 calories. Today the size of a typical serving has increased so much that it has 610 calories—about three times as much! READ MORE

It’s probably not a coincidence that the rise in soda consumption has paralleled the surge in obesity. In prior decades kids drank mainly milk, juice, and water, but soda has now become the beverage of choice. Kids drink, on average, about 24 oz of soda a day. As soda consumption has increased, so has the size of a typical soda serving. The original size of a soda bottle was 8 oz, and it contained 97 calories. Then soda started being packaged in 12-oz cans, containing 145 calories. Today a 20-oz bottle of soda contains a whopping 250 calories. That’s the smallest size many stores carry—and the size many kids consider to be a single serving. LESS

PART 2 Knowing How Much to Serve

Kids, and people in general, tend to ignore the signals of fullness their bodies send them and instead tend to eat whatever is presented as a “single” portion. That’s why knowing reasonable, average single-serving sizes can help you to judge how much to serve your child at a meal. READ MORE

Measuring out portions with weight scales and measuring utensils is time consuming, so it’s a good idea to use visual equivalents to “eyeball” portion size. Visual equivalents help you to know what a reasonable portion is at mealtime. For instance, one-half cup of rice or pasta (a single serving) is about the size of half a baseball. A single serving of meat or poultry, 3 oz, is about the size of a deck of cards, whereas a single portion of fish (also 3 oz) is about the size of a checkbook. Keeping portions at sensible sizes is an excellent way to help fight obesity. LESS

Photo credit: Grandmother preparing food with her grandson
Copyright 2009 Cade Martin