Portion Control or Out of Control?
Why is portion control so important? I suppose it depends on whether you are trying to burn all the calories you take in each day, or have extra ones to store away for later. Even as I write this, I am enjoying 1/2 cup of oats, cooked, and topped with measured amounts of butter, brown sugar, bannana, etc. Instead of feeling frustrated at the thought of measuring my breakfast (or approximating it because I’ve made it so many times), I find security and peace of mind knowing that I will burn all the calories I eat today and still be a size 7 tomorrow.
Imagine you bought fertilizer for your lawn, but it did not come with directions for proper application. You would wander your yard, scatter the amount you thought was right, and hope for the best. Through trial and error (and watching the results), you would discover what did not work well, but would probably not get the maximum benefit without the directions. It is the same with food.
Most companies selling food are not only trying to make money, but are unconcerned with your health or the long-term results of eating their food. I like to think of them as used car salesmen. I evaluate each company individually to see how much they know about what they are selling, and how accurately they represent that information. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, has some great lists of the best and worst foods. Here are just a couple of their examples of restaurants not understanding (or caring) what they are selling, and consumers not understanding (or caring) what they are eating:
- Chili’s Big Mouth Bites with French fries (four mini bacon cheeseburgers with fried onion strings): 2,350 calories, 38 grams saturated fat, 3,940 milligrams sodium. That’s about two days worth of RDA for most people.
- Olive Garden Tour of Italy, with lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine alfredo: 1,450 calories, 33 grams saturated fat, 3,830 milligrams sodium. If you’re over 40 or have high blood pressure, that’s more than twice the sodium you should have in an entire day.
- Ruby Tuesday’s “Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta.” It sounds healthy, but its 2,060 calories and 128 grams of fat make it the equivalent of two 12-ounce sirloin steaks, two buttered baked potatoes, and two Caesar salads. (CSPI calls this dish “Angioplasta.”)
- Cheesecake Factory’s “Chris’ Outrageous Chocolate Cake.” This 1,380-calorie menu item is the equivalent of eating two Quarter Pounders plus a large fries—for dessert.
- Starbucks Venti White Chocolate Mocha and Blueberry Scone would provide 1,100 calories—or about as much as one would find in a Burger King bacon double cheeseburger, medium fries, and medium Coke.
Most of us realize that our desires will drive us to an unhealthy place unless control or restraint is applied. We easily recognize this with the number of hours we (or our children) watch television, the amount of candy we eat in a day, how much money we spend frivolously out of our paychecks, etc. Most adults don’t really live by “if it feels good, do it”.
Once we decide that we want to use portion control when eating, the question is how. You could check out Mayo Clinic’s slide show on Portion Control for Weight Loss, Web MD’s article on Portion Control and Weight Loss, or look at The Portion Plate - an actual plate that shows portion guidelines. You could also search a particular food in Calorie King’s Food Database and they will tell you the appropriate serving size, allow you to select other serving sizes, give you the nutritional information, as well as the amount of exercise needed to burn those calories.
Most of us have never been taught this information and yet it is foundational to good health and maintaining a healthy weight. Once you get used to seeing and using healthy portion sizes, it is easier to see that both at home and in a restaurant, we serve and eat a lot more food than we need.
Special photo thanks to loleia at stock.xchng.
