The Plate Palette: Balance by Portion

So one of the things I keep in my culinary files is a copy of a photo from a National Geographic article titled "Why Are We So Fat?" (Aug 2004, Vol 6, No 6).  It's a plate filled with objects representing the ideal portion serving size for some basic foods -- meat, rice, potato, pasta, etc.  I love it because it really puts an image in your head and kind of brings the whole idea of portion into perspective. 

I was curious since the article was written eight years ago to see if any of the research had changed.  The only thing different was the suggestion service size for cheese, which I'm sad to report decreased.  So I thought I would share some of these images with you to get it into your head as we move into the whole putting together the ideally good for you plate.

I would share the actual image with you but unfortunately my copy is super dark and doesn't translate well in second transfer.

IDEAL PORTIONS

3 oz serving of chicken or beef = a deck of cards (or the size of your hand minus the fingers, but that seems gross)

potato = head of a light bulb

serving of pasta = a computer mouse (without the tail)

serving of fruit = size of a baseball

serving of steamed rice = cupcake holder (minus the cupcake...and icing)

bagel or muffin = hockey puck

serving of cheese = two playing dice (though some places say three, I like them better)

snacks like chips or pretzels = one cupped handful (with the fingers)

So that gives you some idea of what you should be looking for when doling out your portions.  And depending on your age and size, there's some room for variation I'm sure.

For more details about portions, there are several great web pages out there.  The one that I found that I liked the most was WebMD.  The WebMD printable portion control guide is ready to print-out and pop on the fridge for easy reference.  I found just a few variations from what I have above, but the differences are minute (my-newt, not min-ut), so check it out.

Next time, I will be talking about Balance by Nutrition, just a primer though because that could be a topic for a blog all by itself.  And I will have a recipe to share with you for that. Promise. :)