{"id":6519,"date":"2017-07-11T09:51:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T13:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/?p=6519"},"modified":"2017-07-11T10:14:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T14:14:53","slug":"portion-size-vs-serving-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/health-maintenance\/portion-size-vs-serving-size\/","title":{"rendered":"Portion Size vs. Serving Size"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"page-title\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6520\" style=\"color: #333333;font-weight: 300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2017\/07\/Portion-vs-serving-size.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2017\/07\/Portion-vs-serving-size.png 462w, http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2017\/07\/Portion-vs-serving-size-350x226.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/h1>\n<div class=\"article-hero\">\n<p class=\"description\">Sometimes the portion size and serving size are the same, but sometimes they are not. Over the past few years portions have grown significantly in restaurants, as has the frequency of Americans eating out. Learn how much to put on your plate to help control how much you eat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ratingsDiv\">\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;font-weight: bold\">Big portion sizes can mean you\u2019re getting more food than your body can stomach to maintain a healthy weight.<\/span><\/div>\n<article class=\"print-section\">Do you know how much you&#8217;re really eating? Sometimes it\u2019s hard to tell if the portions we are eating are the right serving size for our nutritional needs.\u00a0 Portion sizes have increased drastically over the years, contributing to the rising obesity rate.<\/p>\n<h2>So how did it get this way?<\/h2>\n<p>Consider these statistics from the American Heart Association and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation study \u201cA Nation at Risk: Obesity in the United States\u201d:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Adults today consume an average of 300 more calories per day than they did in 1985.<\/li>\n<li>Portion sizes have grown dramatically over the last 40 years.<\/li>\n<li>Americans eat out much more than they used to.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Understanding healthy portions can be hard. Here\u2019s why:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Many of us don\u2019t know what a healthy portion is.<\/li>\n<li>Restaurants offer extras like breads, chips and other appetizers that add extra calories, sodium and fat but lack any nutritional benefit.<\/li>\n<li>Some meals have portions that are enough for two or more people.<\/li>\n<li>Many convenience foods and drinks are priced lower but packaged in larger sizes to sell more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Clearing up the confusion.<\/h2>\n<p>Here are a couple of important definitions from the National Institutes of Health:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Portion<\/strong>\u00a0is how much food you choose to eat at one time, whether in a restaurant, from a package or in your own kitchen. A portion is 100 percent under our control. Many foods that come as a single portion actually contain multiple servings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Serving Size<\/strong>\u00a0is the amount of food listed on a product\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/healthyforgood.heart.org\/eat-smart\/articles\/understanding-food-nutrition-labels\" class=\"broken_link\">Nutrition Facts label<\/a>. So all of the nutritional values you see on the label are for the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/healthyforgood.heart.org\/eat-smart\/infographics\/what-is-a-healthy-diet-recommended-serving-infographic\" class=\"broken_link\">serving size<\/a>\u00a0the manufacturer suggests on the package.<br \/>\nOnce we understand the difference, it\u2019s easier to determine how much to serve and easier to teach kids the difference between the two. Learn some\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/healthyforgood.heart.org\/eat-smart\/articles\/suggested-servings-from-each-food-group\" class=\"broken_link\">suggested servings from each food groups<\/a>\u00a0you and your kids can eat at mealtime or between meals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How can we eat and serve smaller portions?<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>When cooking at home:\u00a0<\/strong>Offer the proper \u201cserving\u201d to each member of the family, then put the extra food away. Save leftovers for another meal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When dining out:<\/strong>\u00a0 Skip the appetizers and split a large salad or main dish with a friend.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When ordering takeout at home:<\/strong>\u00a0Eat one slice of pizza instead of two, and order a small instead of a medium to split among the family so the pieces are smaller.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Watching movies at home or at the theatre:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Don\u2019t eat while watching TV or a movie or when you\u2019re on the computer. It\u2019s harder to control how much you\u2019re eating if you don\u2019t pay attention to what you\u2019re putting in your mouth, and when. At the movies, share a box of popcorn, and avoid the free-refill tubs and skip the candy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>At snack time:<\/strong>\u00a0Never eat straight from the bag or box. Measure out snacks, including fruits and veggies, into appropriate portion sizes before giving them to your kids.<\/li>\n<li><strong>All the time:<\/strong>\u00a0Tracking your calories helps you monitor your weight. It helps to know what the appropriate serving size is so you can correctly estimate the calories in your portions, especially if you dine out a lot. Using a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.heart.org\/fooddiary\" class=\"broken_link\">food diary<\/a>\u00a0can help you pay closer attention to what you&#8217;re eating, how much and how often.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>You may be surprised to learn these are serving sizes:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>1 slice of bread<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd cup rice or pasta (cooked)<\/li>\n<li>1 small piece of fruit (super-large apples are 2+ servings)<\/li>\n<li>1 wedge of melon<\/li>\n<li>\u00be cup fruit juice<\/li>\n<li>=1 cup milk or yogurt<\/li>\n<li>2 oz. cheese (about the size of a domino)<\/li>\n<li>2-3 oz. meat, poultry or fish (this is about the size of a deck of cards)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Last Reviewed 2015<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-date\">Last Updated: March 21, 2017<\/div>\n<p class=\"copyright\">Article copyright\u00a0\u00a9\u00a02017 American Heart Association.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/healthyforgood.heart.org\/Eat-smart\/Articles\/Portion-Size-Versus-Serving-Size\" class=\"broken_link\">https:\/\/healthyforgood.heart.org\/Eat-smart\/Articles\/Portion-Size-Versus-Serving-Size<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes the portion size and serving size are the same, but sometimes they are not. Over the past few years portions have grown significantly in restaurants, as has the frequency of Americans eating out. Learn how much to put on &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/health-maintenance\/portion-size-vs-serving-size\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9193321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[313094],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-maintenance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9fc-1H9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9193321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6519"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6522,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions\/6522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}