How Have Portion Sizes Changed Over The Years

person with empty plate and lots of food - Portion versus serving

Sometimes the portion size and serving size are the same, only sometimes they are not. Over the past few years portions have grown significantly in restaurants, as has the frequency of Americans eating out. Acquire how much to put on your plate to assist command how much you swallow.

Practise you lot know how much yous're really eating? Sometimes information technology'southward difficult to tell if the portions we are eating are the correct serving size for our nutritional needs. Portion sizes have increased drastically over the years, contributing to the ascension obesity rate.

So how did it go this way?

Consider these statistics from the American Heart Clan and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study "A Nation at Risk: Obesity in the Us":

Adults today consume an average of 300 more calories per day than they did in 1985.
Portion sizes accept grown dramatically over the final 40 years.
Americans eat out much more they used to.

Understanding healthy portions tin be hard. Here's why:

Many of usa don't know what a healthy portion is.
Restaurants offering extras similar breads, chips and other appetizers that add together extra calories, sodium and fat but lack any nutritional benefit.
Some meals take portions that are enough for two or more people.
Many convenience foods and drinks are priced lower but packaged in larger sizes to sell more.

Immigration up the confusion.

Hither are a couple of of import definitions from the National Institutes of Health:

Portion is how much food you cull to consume at one time, whether in a restaurant, from a package or in your ain kitchen. A portion is 100 percent nether our control. Many foods that come equally a unmarried portion actually contain multiple servings.
Serving Size is the amount of nutrient listed on a production'sDiet Facts characterization. And so all of the nutritional values you encounter on the characterization are for the serving size the manufacturer suggests on the parcel.
One time we sympathise the difference, it's easier to determine how much to serve and easier to teach kids the difference betwixt the two. Learn somesuggested servings from each food groups you and your kids tin eat at mealtime or between meals.

How can we swallow and serve smaller portions?

When cooking at domicile:Offering the proper "serving" to each member of the family, then put the actress food abroad. Save leftovers for another meal.
When dining out: Skip the appetizers and divide a large salad or main dish with a friend.
When ordering takeout at habitation: Swallow one slice of pizza instead of two, and order a small instead of a medium to split among the family and then the pieces are smaller.
Watching movies at home or at the theatre:Don't eat while watching Goggle box or a picture or when you're on the estimator. It'due south harder to control how much you're eating if you don't pay attention to what y'all're putting in your rima oris, and when. At the movies, share a box of popcorn, and avert the free-refill tubs and skip the candy.
At snack time: Never eat straight from the bag or box. Measure out snacks, including fruits and veggies, into appropriate portion sizes earlier giving them to your kids.
All the time: Tracking your calories helps you monitor your weight. It helps to know what the appropriate serving size is so you lot tin can correctly estimate the calories in your portions, especially if you dine out a lot. Using a food diary can aid yous pay closer attending to what y'all're eating, how much and how oftentimes.