The sight of food can make you eat more than you need, especially if you don't know what your limits should be. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cite multiple recent studies that determined that, when faced with larger food portions, people ate more---without even realizing it. If you regularly eat as much or as little as you want, you can improve your nutritional profile and manage your weight by paying attention to food portions at meal time.
Weight Management
If you take in more calories than you use up, you will gain weight, no matter how active you are. The American Diabetes Association, or ADA, points out that overconsuming even nutritious foods can have this effect, because all of these foods have some calories. Americans may have a skewed sense of what a reasonable portion of food is, due to the super-sizing promoted by restaurants and the snack-food industry.
Nutritional Content
Eating too much or too little can also create a dangerous nutritional imbalance that may affect your health over time. That's why the FDA, which regulates the sale of food in the U.S., instituted mandatory nutrition facts labeling for prepared foods in 1994. Food labels tell you the types and amounts of nutrients in the foods that you buy, including calories, based on standardized serving sizes. This allows you to make food selections that limit the nutrients that can harm your health, such as saturated and trans fat, cholesterol, sodium and sugar.
Restaurant Portions
While some restaurants provide nutrition information on their menus, they aren't required to do so by law. Over the years, restaurant portion sizes have grown. Ubiquitous fast-food chains make it easy to eat out more often, and one ad campaign even encourages a "fourth meal." The ADA notes that many fast-food breakfasts, lunches and dinners carry more than 1,000 calories, or half of the FDA's total daily allowance for an average diet.
Recommended Portions
Meal portions should include enough calories and nutrition to satisfy body functions without creating fat storage. The American Heart Association recommends ½-cup servings of rice, noodles, hot cereal, most vegetables and fruits. In volume, that's about the size of half a tennis ball. You can bump that up to 1 cup for cold cereal and raw leafy greens, and cut it down to ¼ cup for dried fruits. Serve cooked meats and fish in 3-ounce portions, or the size of a deck of cards.
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