Presentation Ideas: Portion Distortion

JoAnn Covelli, Educator, Program Assistant, Family Nutrition Program, Ohio State University Extension, has designed a display titled “Portion Distortion.” It relates portions of common foods to everyday items such as 9-volt batteries, baseballs, a deck of cards, etc. The interactive part of the display is to have the participant select from a variety of bowls the bowl they would use for their cereal or dry snack mix. They choose a cereal or snack mix and pour it into the bowl in the amount they would normally eat. The contents are then measured, and they can see how many portions they actually have in their bowl and would normally consume. Many are surprised at how many portions they actually are eating.Editor’s Note: Many educators are also reporting success with the movie Supersize Me. This would be a nice complement to this lesson idea from JoAnn. This movie is now available on VHS?or DVD. FMI see www.amazon.com.