Portion Distortion

Many of you will join Tony and me in a New Year Resolution that includes some version of getting healthier…one way to get healthier is to eat smaller portions of food. The portion sizes that we tend to choose are not only much larger than government-recommended portion sizes, but also are much larger than the portion sizes that people chose 20 years ago. Check nutritional facts on labels to determine a proper portion size. But if you need to guess, here are some visual cues to help determine portion sizes:

• 3 oz meat or poultry = a deck of cards·
• 3 oz fish = a checkbook
• 1 oz of cheese = 4 dice
• ½ cup of pasta or veggies = a tennis ball
• 1 slice of bread = a computer disk
• ¼ cup dried fruit = a golf ball
• 1 tsp butter or margarine = the tip of your thumb
• 2 Tbls of mayonnaise, oil, or dip = a ping-pong ball