Nutrition: Portion Control

Portion control is important in any food service establishment. It affects costs and customer satisfaction. In healthcare, it also affects nutritional status and regulatory compliance.

Portion control is also important in our everyday lives. The only way to know if we are consuming the right amount of nutrients, not too much and not too little, is to follow the portion sizes in recipes and on ingredient labels.

Much of the overweight and obesity problems in this country are related to overeating (obviously!) but much of the overeating is related to not watching portion sizes.

The only way to learn accurate portion sizes is to measure it, weigh it, or count it. If you are not used to doing this, it will be amazing!

For example, the label on a brand name of potato chips states that a serving size contains 160 calories and 10 grams of fat. The serving size is 1 ounce, or about 12 chips. Have you ever counted out and eaten just 12 chips? It’s not much. But that is a serving for this item.

If instead of one serving, you ate the entire 10 ounce bag (10 servings), it would be 1600 calories and 100 grams of fat! An average calorie level is considered 2000 calories (many people need to consume less than that to maintain weight and some more). So this bag of potato chips contains over 3/4 of the average caloric needs for one day.

For a 2000 calorie diet, recommended total fat (for a healthy person) is less than 65 grams. This one bag of chips provides all the fat for that day and a good portion for the next.

One of the best things you can do for your health and your weight is follow portions sizes.