TAKING PORTION SIZES BY THE HAND: HOW TO KNOW IF YOUR HELPING IS THE RIGHT SIZE

Thursday, January 30, 2003

Boston--Although a study in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association warns that America’s food portions have grown significantly in the past several decades, we can control our food intake when dining out or cooking at home. Try these easy tricks from Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences nutrition professor Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, LDN, to eyeball your portions:

  • The amount of vegetables on your plate should be twice the size of the serving of the cooked meat, poultry, or fish.
  • The amount of cooked meat, poultry, or fish, should be no larger than three ounces, which is the equivalent to the size of a palm of a lady’s hand or a credit card, ½ inch thick.
  • The amount of grains should be no larger than twice the size of the vegetables.

“By focusing on the vegetables on your plate, you will be less likely to allow the meat or grains to “takeover” your meal, and more importantly, your diet. Chase each meal with a glass of skim milk and end it with a piece of fruit. Presto! Your diet is now balanced with all the food groups in a healthy proportion, and you did it with very little measuring. Just the use of your eyes,” says Salge Blake.

Joan Salge Blake is a professor of nutrition at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She is a sought after nutrition expert who has worked extensively with the media and a registered dietitian with her own private practice. You can read her nutrition column, "Ask Joan," at Oxygen.com or view her recipe collection and much more at http://people.bu.edu/salge.

Joan is available for interviews.

Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences is an institution of higher education and research whose premier academic programs prepare dynamic health professionals and whose research and leadership is the health and rehabilitation sciences is actively shaping health care. For more information about Sargent College and to learn about their degree programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, communication disorders, health sciences, athletic training, nutrition, and rehabilitation counseling, visit http://www.bu.edu/sargent.