Confused? It's no wonder

If you're perplexed about just what a serving size is, your confusion may be warranted. Take a serving of pasta, for example. In the USA, the Food Guide Pyramid defines a serving of pasta as ½ cup, the label on pasta box translates a serving into one cup, but your neighborhood trattoria might dish up two or more cups on a single plate.

Can all of these accurately be described as a "serving?" And if so, what does that mean for health-savvy consumers interested in monitoring their food intake?

Reality check

Begin by keeping in mind that there is no one definition of a serving size. With both the Food Guide Pyramid and the "Nutrition Facts" label, the "serving size" is simply a unit of measure and may not represent the amount you are really eating.

If you are trying to use a tool like the Food Pyramid to guide your food consumption, you need to translate your portions into Pyramid servings. For example, an English muffin represents two Pyramid servings of bread, despite the fact that the "Nutrition Facts" label on the package defines a serving as one muffin. And, your usual plate of pasta is likely to be two or more ½-cup servings. Other countries have different established "servings" on food labels, but for you, the portion-conscious consumer, the problem remains the same no matter where you live.

At home, measuring your food for a day can help provide perspective on your portion sizes. For packaged foods like cereal, use the label to identify what a serving is. For other foods, use the Food Guide Pyramid portion sizes. Seeing what a defined serving looks like on your own dishes will help you gauge how much you are eating.

Estimating portion sizes

For a quick estimation of portion sizes, here is a "handy" model to use:

• 3 ounces of meat, poultry, or fish are about the size of a women's palm, or a deck of playing cards
• 1/2 cup of cut fruit, vegetables, or pasta is about the size of a small fist
• 1 cup of milk, yogurt or chopped fresh greens is about the size of a small hand holding a tennis ball
• An ounce of cheese is about the size of your thumb
• A teaspoon of margarine is about the size of your thumb tip

Dining out

Controlling portions in restaurants can be a real challenge. In the United States, restaurant portions can border on the extreme. This is driven in part by diners themselves - in a 1998 National Restaurant Association study (larger) portion size was ranked as one of the 10 "hallmarks of a great place."

To limit the amount you eat when dining out, try some of the following strategies:

• Order an appetizer as an entree (main dish)
• Split an entree with another person
• Cut your entree in half as soon as you get it. Ask your waiter to wrap the other half "to go."
• Order smaller sizes such as a half-order of pasta or a "petite" cut of meat. Even so, portions may still be hefty. It's not unusual for a "smaller" portion of meat to be an 8-ounce serving
• In fast-food restaurants avoid "extra value" or "super size" meals, unless, of course, you want to split it with a friend. A regular hamburger is usually equivalent to one serving of meat and two servings of grain

Some portion sizes taken from the USDA Food Guide Pyramid

Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese

1 cup of milk or yogurt
1 ½ ounces of natural cheese
2 ounces of processed cheese

Meat, Poultry, Dry Beans, Eggs, and Nuts

2-3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish
½ cup of cooked dry beans, 1 egg, or 2 tablespoons of peanut butter count as 1 ounce of lean meat

Vegetables

1 cup of raw leafy vegetables
½ cup of other vegetables, cooked or chopped raw
¾ cup of vegetable juice

Fruit

1 medium apple, banana, orange
½ cup of chopped, cooked, or canned fruit
¾ cup of fruit juice

Bread, Cereal, Rice, or Pasta

1 slice of bread
1 ounce of ready-to-eat cereal
½ cup of cooked cereal, rice, or pasta