Doling out food portions for a recipe or a diet plan is always a crapshoot; we can barely tell 3 ounces from 10. Worse, we simply shovel down restaurant chow until we're asked to leave. Nutritionists helped us compile a dozen easy conversions for standard servings. (The nutritional information may vary by brand and type of food.)
Food portion: 1 oz sausage link (54 cal, 5 g fat) Same size as: shotgun shell
Food portion: 1 tsp butter (34 cal, 4 g fat) Same size as: tip of thumb
Food portion: 1/2 c mashed potatoes (112 cal, 5 g fat) Same size as: 1/2 apple
Food portion: 1 oz cubed Swiss cheese (107 cal, 8 g fat) Same size as: 4 dice
Food portion: 1/2 c cooked spaghetti (99 cal, 1 g fat) Same size as: fist
Food portion: 3 oz beef (219 cal, 13 g fat) Same size as: deck of cards
Food portion: 1/2 c ice cream (143 cal, 7 g fat) Same size as: tennis ball
Food portion: 4 oz dry spaghetti (422 cal, 2 g fat) Same size as: the diameter of a quarter (when held tightly together and viewed from the end)
Food portion: 1 c chicken-noodle soup (175 cal, 6 g fat) Same size as: baseball
Food portion: 1 Tbsp blue-cheese dressing (77 cal, 8 g fat) Same size as: 1/2 golf ball
Food portion: 8 oz lasagna (270 cal, 8 g fat) Same size as: 2 hockey pucks
Food portion: 1 oz mozzarella (80 cal, 6 g fat) Same size as: Ping-Pong ball
