Serving Size Reminder
Posted by terrepruitt on July 14, 2009
As you might agree our portion sizes contribute to the obesity epidemic in America.
In restaurants a meal is usually more than one serving of each item. I know that we recently went to Morton’s in downtown San Jose and my steak worked out to be probably about a serving and three quarters.
If we started eating the proper serving sizes I am convinced our obesity rates would go down.
In case you are familiar or you want a reminder:
1 gram = about a paper clip or a dime
4 g is a tsp (4 paper clips or 4 dimes)
| One serving of: | Is about: |
| Meat | a deck of playing cards |
| Cheese | the equivalent of four dices |
| Salad greens | the size of a softball |
| Baked potato | the size of a computer mouse |
| Fruit | the size of a tennis ball |
| Bread | the size of an audio cassette (but do people know what THAT is?) |
Also remember to check the serving size on the package. If you fill a bowl with cereal, just because that is one “bowl” doesn’t mean that is one “serving”. The bowl could hold more than one serving. Do you have a favorite food that you tend to eat more of than the serving size? C’mon you can tell me, what is it?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
judy said
Chips! First of all, I shouldn’t eat any servings. Second of all, the bag says a serving size is 7 chips. 7 chips! Who eats 7 chips?
I like the chart. I will refer to it often (thus giving you, over time,a crazy number of views for this post!)
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terrepruitt said
Those must be HUGE sized chips, right? But, alas, I would side with you on the statement that chips should be avoided. But with your svelte figure, I bet 14 chips wouldn’t be too bad every once in awhile. But I think that the big issue is KNOWING that you are eating two servings? Ya know?
I believe that often we are not even aware that we are eating 2 servings instead of one (or in the case of John Pruitt eight servings—with that steak he is talking about—instead of one). If we become aware of it we can make adjustments for it throughout the day.
Views are good. Keep ’em coming.
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johnpruitt said
What does this say about the steak I had at Morton’s that was roughly the size of a car battery?
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terrepruitt said
It says that your wife sometimes has to ignore what you are consuming and just resolve herself to taking care of you when you are older. But also you have to remember that it is not often I ask you NOT to finish what you are eating and that steak was so huge I asked you not to finish it. NO ONE should consume that much meat in a single sitting. And the fitness professional in me says that the one steak should be spread out for consumption over an entire month!
Do you have a link that we can share with the readers so they can see what you are talking about?
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terrepruitt said
In case you want to see the steak John Pruitt is talking about:
http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/s-VKVO249l6LCgIbKYOseg?select=rxbXVYM5KU1R5Y-zWBI5wQ
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judy said
HOLY COW! That steak is a week’s worth of meat servings! 😉
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, “holy cow”! Funny, but yeah, it is a month’s worth for me.
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Jill Campana said
What an interesting blog!!! I know all of this and yet your visuals and little charts — you amaze me with your technical dazzle — it was fun to read!
I lost 15 pounds just going totally wheat and gluten-free, which is another nutritional nightmare that most doctors will never mention (not to mention the wheat farmers). Gluten is like “glue”. My husband and I both shed 15 pounds in two weeks just from not eating wheat/gluten.
There are loads of really good gluten-free products out there now, too. Not just the ol’ “cardboard” type of bread that used to be available years ago as an option.
My niece was obese for much of her life until a year or so ago. She’s dropped 160 pounds by watching her portions, working out, and eliminating alot of the food allergens. Gluten and wheat are both MAJOR allergy producers.
Anyway, thanks for your blog. Just to bring Nia into the picture for a moment, too — I found that as I became more consciously aware of my physical movements, as Nia invites us to do, that awareness starting to find its way in to all aspects of my life.
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, I figured most of us knew it, so that is why I was thinking it would be a reminder. Sometimes we forget what we know. We can talk and I can share my technical “dazzle” with you. It is stuff I am learning to help promote my website and get the word of Nia out. It is not big here in my area!
I am just now starting to think about that gluten-free way of living. I don’t know that I will participate, but I just recently read an article that claimed it has a lot of ill effects on peple. Not just weight loss goodness, but gluten causes a lot of problems for some people.
OD FOR YOUR NIECE! I think that we would all lose weight if we went on the “serving size diet” and if we just ate an actual serving size. But we eat more. At a lot of restaurants we are served more. While looking into this information there was one site that showed a sandwich and fries and it claimed that the sandwich was three servings of bread and two and a half of potatoes.
Always bring Nia into the picture. One of these days I want to blog about awareness. There are so many Nia realated things I want to blog about.
Thanks for commenting!
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10 Things You Might Not Know, part 12 « Zebra Sounds said
[…] serving of meat is equal in size to a deck of playing cards. I learned that on Terre Pruitt’s blog. I loved the post which related serving sizes to common household items. Much more helpful than […]
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