Portion Control, Don't Go Overboard - Food and Health Communications

Controlling your weight is a matter of controlling the amount of calories you consume versus the amount you expend in movement through daily activities and exercise. Many foods, like fruits, vegetables, beans, cooked whole grains, fat-free dairy, and lean protein are naturally low in calories. So if you base your diet on these, you will feel fuller on fewer calories than if you eat high-calorie sugary and fatty foods like baked goods, fried foods, chips and other processed foods.
But in addition to WHAT you eat, you have to be aware of HOW?MUCH?you eat.
It is a good idea to write down what you eat in a day and figure out how many calories you are eating. Can you shave 100 calories from each meal by eating less? Here are some tips:
How to Stay Afloat:
- Use smaller plates and cups
- Read Nutrition Facts Labels
- Order small
- Beware of big baked goods
- Share large entrees
- Don't eat out of the bag
- Don't eat in front of the TV
- Eat before you go out
Being aware of common portion sizes is a good idea. For meat, you want 3 ounces per meal - about the size of a deck of cards. Most packaged cereals call for a cup - about the size of a tennis ball. A portion of fat-free frozen yogurt is a half-cup or about the size of a racquet ball.
Portion Control Size Guide
This Amount    = Size of:
3 ounces meat    = deck of cards
1/2 cup    = golf ball
1 cup    = tennis ball
1 teaspoon    = tip of thumb
1 tablespoon    = whole thumb
Order Size Calories Guide
The difference between a small meal and a supersized meal could be much more than double the calories, as we see in our chart below:
Large   Small
French fries    570       250
Burger              730    260
Soda                 310    150
Cookie             470    110
Ice cream       560    230
Totals             2,640    1,000
From the 12 Lessons of Weight Management and Wellness. www.foodandhealth.com.

Judy Doherty

Judy’s passion for cooking began with helping her grandmother make raisin oatmeal for breakfast. From there she earned her first food service job at 15, was accepted to the world famous Culinary Institute of America at 18 (where she graduated second in her class), and went on to the Fachschule Richemont in Switzerland where she focused on pastry arts and baking. But after learning that the quality of a croissant directly varies with how much butter it has, Judy sought to challenge herself by coming up with recipes that were as healthy as they were tasty.

Judy received The Culinary Institute of America’s Pro Chef II certification, the American Culinary Federation Bronze Medal, Gold Medal, and ACF Chef of the Year. Her enthusiasm for eating nutritiously and deliciously leads her to constantly innovate and use the latest in nutritional science to guide her creativity, from putting new twists on fajitas to adapting Italian brownies to include ingredients like toasted nuts and cooked honey. Judy’s publishing company, Food and Health Communications, is dedicated to her vision that everyone can make food that tastes as good as it is for you.