Mindful Portion Sizes: Appearances Can Be Deceiving

What are portion sizes and how can they help me? How many times have you eaten a food item or drank a drink without paying much attention to the size of the item that you are consuming?

Although we promote the non-dieting approach; that does not mean that we are avoiding the details of what we are eating. Actually, we do pay a lot of attention to the “who, what, when, where and why” of eating.

Today, I would like to talk to you about the “what” you are consuming. Knowledge of portion sizes does not mean that I want you to limit the amount of food that you eat or drink, I simply want you to be more aware of what you are consuming.

Here are some common examples.

Apples, some apples are about the size of two apple “servings”. I want you to enjoy the large, tasty apples, just be conscious of the amount of fruit that you are eating and enjoy every bite. Try not to eat mindlessly.

Old fashioned wine glasses versus new wine glasses. Each of these glasses contains one cup of “buttons” to visualize this concept. The small glass is almost overflowing with buttons while the buttons barely cover the bottom of a more standard size wine glass in today’s homes and restaurants. The same is true with the old fashioned juice glasses, my mom recently gave me some of her old juice glasses and they held about ¼ of the amount of juice as my current juice glasses. Again, the key is to be aware of how much wine or juice you are drinking. It is easy to over consume both without actually realizing how much you are drinking.

This is an outdated poster that used to hang in our office. You may have seen one in the past. I do like it because it helps keep portion sizes in perspective. I am not sure how many people know what a floppy disc is so there is probably a better example for a slice of bread. Sometimes is it easier to talk to your Registered Dietitian about the food you eat when you are comparing it to a common item so that you can both communicate clearly about the amount of food that you consumed.

Pizza is another example of food that is commonly overeaten and very difficult to communicate the size of the pizza, many people do not think about how much the size of a slice of pizza varies. Here is an example of two slices of pizza that were brought to our house on the same day from two local pizza places. Note the size difference in the slices.

Another food item that is easy to overeat is cereal. How much cereal do you consume? How much cereal does your cereal bowl contain? Are you simply pouring more and more cereal into your bowl as you mindlessly eat the cereal while reading the paper, checking your phone or watching the morning news? Again, mindfulness is the key to being aware of how much you are eating and to how much your body needs.

How aware are you of portion sizes?

We can help you make food simple and enjoyable. Make an appointment with our Registered Dietitian Nutritionists today.