Portion Control: What You Need to Know

We love Nutrition Month almost as much as we love our readers. That's why we put together this guide to portion sizes. Feel free to print it out and distribute it to your clients.How can you deal with oversized servings? It can be hard to stop eating when there is tons of delicious food to enjoy. A common answer to this problem is to ignore the rest of the food and only eat proper portions of each item. Sadly, that is easier said than done.First of all, studies indicate that when people are offered larger portions of food, they tend to eat more of it. In one study, participants ate 30% more calories when offered the largest portion of an entrée, compared to what they ate when they were offered the smallest portion (Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76(6):1207-1213). When there is lots of food on your plate, it can skew your perception of what you’ve eaten and make it hard to stop eating.Second, even when you pay attention to portion size, you also have to consider WHAT you are eating. Even small portions of high-fat, high-calorie foods can interfere with the best weight loss intentions.Take a look at the chart below. It demonstrates that guessing is no substitute for properly measuring servings. Take the time to become aware of how much you are eating. Measuring cups are a great resource!Download a free PDF of this article hereWe have tons of Nutrition Month resources available in our store. Check out some of our portion control favorites below...