Portions and Servings

Portions sizes can be confusing for a person of normal weight, and even more so for the overweight who may have more personal or medical reasons for wanting to consume less food. Many health agencies are aware of the public’s confusion on the subject and many have produced information online and off where people can learn more. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute has on online quiz where people are faced with the average sizes of a food item from 20 years ago and today. The user must guess the amount of calories in today’s size through multiple choice and compare it to the amount of calories in its older version. Family Economics and Nutrition Review defines a portion is the amount of food an individual chooses to eat or drink. It gets complicated because portions are most likely larger than what is considered a standard serving.

Serving sizes are simply a unit of measure used in the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid to describe the total daily amount of foods recommended for each of the food groups, and the Nutrition Facts Label on food packaging to specify the quantity of nutrients. In case you're not confused by now, the sizes in recommend in the Food Pyramid are not always the same as the ones found on a food label. Why, do you ask? Because they are there to serve different purposes. The MyPyramid image below is of the daily food amounts recommended for a 32 year old female: 6 ounces of grains are suggested. Below that is a food label for a Macaroni and Cheese dish. Which states that the container holds 1 cup of 2 servings. Does that mean 1/2 cup is considered in 1 serving all the time? Are 6 ounces the same as 1 cup? Yes, if its dry ingredients, no if its liquid. But this dish is not only grain, but has a lot of cheese in it as well. How much will I get when I order Mac & Cheese at a restaurant - and how much will I eat?