Getting your portions right at mealtimes is essential – it ensures that you’re getting the right amount of each food group and is also important for good health. It’s normally the lunch and dinner meals that need a little (or a lot) or readjusting. Below are some tips on how to perfect your portions at these meals.
Your Plate
This is usually a good place to start when looking at portion control, particularly if you’re looking to lose some weight. How big is your plate? Plates, and crockery in general, seem to have grown bigger and bigger over time, and the bigger our plates, the more we tend to eat. Some people find it helpful to use an entrée sized plate to avoid overeating. The same applies for tupperware and containers – these can hold a deceivingly large amount of food. If you can, avoid purchasing large crockery, and fill your plate/bowl/tupperware/container with what you consider to be the right amount of food for you (this usually varies on a daily basis depending how hungry you are, how you’re feeling etc.)
The Food On Your Plate
Try to imagine your meal broken up into three groups:
- Protein: red meat, chicken, fish, lentils or legumes, tofu, eggs
- Carbohydrates: pasta, rice, potato, bread
- Vegetables/salad: all the non-starchy ones
The proportions of these groups in your meal should ideally be: ¼ protein, ¼ carbohydrates and ½ vegetables and salad. This is a rough guide, which is useful to make sure you’re getting enough vegetables and salad on your plate (many of us don’t), and to make sure you’re not going too overboard with the carbohydrates, which is also very common.
Eating Your Meal
The best part. There are a couple of things to keep in mind here: eat slowly – as Michael Pollan says “take as much time eating your meal as it took to prepare it”, or as my Nan used to say when we were growing up “take a bite and then put your cutlery down”. Allowing 20 minutes or more to eat a meal is a good idea – this gives enough time for the signals from your tummy to reach your brain letting you know that you’re full. Take smaller mouthfuls, chew your food well, and take your time tasting the different flavours. All of these things will help to prevent overeating. Another favourite saying of mine (again, explored in Michael Pollan’s book Food Rules) is “Je n’ai plus faim”, which is what the French say after a meal. This translates to “I have no more hunger” – rather than eating till you’re full try to eat until you’re not hungry anymore.
This is all general healthy eating advice. If you are looking for more specific, tailored advice, I recommend seeing an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD). Visit http://www.daa.asn.au for more information.
