By Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N. Provided by: Joy Bauer Nutrition

Joy's Healthy Bite

Learn to Recognize Real Portions Posted Tue, Sep 19, 2006, 11:00 am PDT

100% of users found this article helpful.


As we all know, restaurant serving sizes have increased significantly over the past few decades. So even if you are trying to watch your portion sizes, it's hard to know what's right when eating out.

Your best bet?  Learn what recommended serving sizes look like. That way, you can "eyeball" your meals and have an idea of how many servings each meal provides. Check out the chart below for some memorable visual cues.

 

Standard Serving Sizes

Food

Servings

Looks Like

Chopped Vegetables

½ cup

½ baseball (large handful for average adult)

Raw Leafy Vegetables (such as lettuce)

1 cup

1 baseball (fist of an average adult)

Fresh Fruit

1 medium piece  

1 baseball

 

½ cup chopped

½ baseball

Dried Fruit

¼ cup

1 golfball (scant handful for average adult)

Pasta, Rice

½ cup cooked      

½ baseball

Ready-to-Eat Cereal

1oz. which varies from ¼ cup to 1 ¼ cups (check label)

1 baseball

Meat, Poultry, Seafood

3oz. cooked         

Deck of cards

Dried Beans         

½ cup cooked      

½ baseball

Nuts       

1/4 cup (4 tbsp)

Scant handful for average adult

Cheese  

1 oz.

4 dice or 2 dominos

 

Was this blog entry helpful?
Tell us what you think.

Rate this blog entry:
liked it no thanks

Leave Your Comment

Comment Guidelines You must sign in to post a comment

Yahoo! Health Videos

My Health

help

Tip of the Day

Provided by: RealAge

Hate the thought of losing your mental edge -- or worse, growing senile -- as you age? Well here's a simple way to slash your risk of dementia by 73 percent. Read More »

View All Tips »

Tell us what you think about Yahoo! Health - Send us your feedback