What Actually is a Serving Size?

Keeping an eye on how much you are eating is important for good health. Help your employees understand how they can make small changes in their portion sizes and get big results. Some points to deliver:

• A healthy balanced diet for adults includes a mix of different foods each day
• Try to incorporate fresh fruit and vegetables into your daily food portions
• Aim for a variety of vegetables each week including dark green, orange, and purple colors
• Choose low fat milk products including yogurt, cheeses, and low-fat milk
• Adult needs about 6 ounces of grains per day (unless you are an athlete) so try weighing and make sure whole grains are the first ingredient on your list
• Include 5 - 6 ounces of protein per day including lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, peas, and nuts
• Try to limit portions of high fat, salty and sugary foods

One way to encourage these health messages is to make available portion controlled plate samples. In fact ScienceDaily (Jun. 26, 2007) — A plate and cereal bowl with markers for proper portion sizes appear to help obese patients with diabetes lose weight and decrease their use of glucose-controlling medications, according to a report in the June 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070625193458.htm You can order portion control plates at Amazon.com or http://www.ezweightplate.com/!