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Healthy Habit #3: Portion Together
Teaching Your Family to Eat Servings, Not Helpings
On the TV show What Not to Wear, fashion experts make it very clear what you shouldn’t do when it comes to clothing: don’t walk around in sweats, loud paisley colors, jumpsuits, overalls, teen trendy wear, etc. The list goes on forever. But one of the biggest gaffes is wearing “camouflage wear”—loose, baggy clothing meant to hide a larger body or too tight clothing intended to “hold the mass in.” Don’t wear something too big or too small. Ever.
Well, when it comes to the obesity epidemic and food problems, you can point your finger at the media, schools that don’t offer enough physical activity, Hollywood and the modeling industry with their unrealistic images, advertisers beckoning with their tempting food messages—this list goes on as well. But the bottom line is, generally speaking, if you eat too much, you are going to gain weight. Just as with clothing, there is a right “size” of food for your body to
be healthy. If the food you eat is too “big” for you, your body will eventually expand to match it.
Lately, many families have fallen into a serious portion distortion trap. We’ve become accustomed to giant, outsized portions, and we end up wearing them in the form of fat, like an extra, unneeded layer of clothing. We’re so used to “big” food that smaller amounts—amounts that would fit our healthy bodies perfectly—seem odd and downright unsatisfying.
HFL Habit #3 is about changing the way we think about portions to achieve a better fit. We’ll give you lots of tips in this chapter to help your family change habits, but perhaps the most important tool is awareness of the problem.
Let’s look at the typical American consumer. We eat out—a lot. In fact, many of us spend half the dollars we spend on food eating away from home.1 We are surrounded by eating opportunities and the food is convenient, cheap, tasty, and served in large portions. The average person eats 159 fast-food meals every year, and many of those are “super-sized” (the meals and, consequently, the people).
Even if we were to try to create one portion standard at home (because we’re in control, so to speak) and one portion standard outside the home, we would still face a major challenge. That’s because our kids would be begging for the gargantuan/fat-laden choices typically available. Over time—and research bears this out—we begin to blur the two environments and we ultimately end up eating larger portions in both environments. Studies have shown that the more food you are served at a given meal, the more you want to eat.2
We tend to eat the same portions every day, but we also tend to eat what’s put down in front of us. So, if you serve larger amounts of cereal in the same bowl to people who routinely take an exact portion size, they won’t take the time to measure the amount visually and consider its consequences. In general, we tend not to evaluate many of the serving sizes placed before us—we just assume it’s the same portion as usual and eat more. Our basic ability to judge fullness and satiation is easily blurred by portion distortion.
Portion sizes have increased inside and outside the home.3 The place where we see this the most is in the fast-food industry (high-fat /high-calorie/high-sodium/highly refined food), which is marketed
as giving you the most for your dollar. Unfortunately, the two types of food most consumed are high-calorie sugary drinks and fatty foods (burgers, fried foods). So we get the double unhealthy whammy of bigger portions and poor quality foods. In this case—two strikes and you’re out.
We also know now that if you consume numerous portions of foods high in processed sugars on a regular daily or even weekly basis, you will be at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.4 So imagine consuming numerous large portions of the food and the impact it has on heightening the risk factors.
PORTIONS MADE SIMPLE WITH THE ROYALTY DIET
I stand by a motto that helps to clarify the importance of the amount of food or portion sizes you are eating and when it makes sense to time the size or amount of food in these portions, so you are sustained through out the day:
Eat Breakfast Like a King/Queen: Have an ample portion of a protein, a serving of a (carb) grain, a serving of a (carb) fruit, and a small serving of fat.
Eat Lunch Like a Prince/Princess: Have one serving each of protein, fat, and (carb) fruit, and two servings of (carb) veggies.
Eat Dinner Like a Pauper: Eat a small serving of protein, double serving of (carb) veggies, one serving of (carb) grain or fruit.
Hungry between meals? Fill in with fruit and/or fat-free dairy snacks.
Big Servings, Big Problems
It’s gotten a bit crazy. We’ve become so used to seeing gargantuan steaks, fries, muffins, pizza, ice cream splits, and soda cups that we feel disappointment and perceive hunger when we are served reasonable-size portions. We commonly get three servings of pasta and meatballs equal to three to four servings of meat during an Italian meal served in an American restaurant. A typical “serving” of sticky white rice in an Asian restaurant is actually three to four servings of rice. Snacks have followed the same pattern; they are often meals unto themselves.
And when we take in liquid calories, our bodies very often do not register satiation or “feeling full” in the same way. We may actually eat more food overall in a day when one of our meals is a smoothie. And unfortunately, our bodies often don’t register satiety at all when we consume soda and juice calories, regardless of the portion size. They just get added to the day’s heavy calorie tab.
We know that most fast-food eaters underestimate the number of calories they eat.5 They don’t do it intentionally; there’s just a perpetual bias in how they perceive how much they are eating. It’s typical human nature to minimize the bad (“I didn’t eat that much today,” “That piece of pie was really small,” “I only had a small burger and fries”) and overexaggerate the good (“See how small my plate is”—never mind that the food was stacked nine inches high). As we’ve become accustomed to the super-sizing concept, it seems we are no longer able to estimate what we should eat in order to feel satisfied but not sickeningly full.
Well, what if you start by setting up guidelines to take less? “See less, eat less” is a true phenomenon that research has proven to exist.67 Avoid seeing more food than you need or want to eat and you will eat less. See more, and you will likely eat more. And remember that portion control is harder with trigger foods, so deciding how you will keep these foods out of your life or how you will create a portion-specific way to handle them is an absolute in the HFL guidelines. You can’t wing it when it comes to tempting foods—ever.
A good reference when it comes to the importance of portion and weight control is the National Weight Registry, which tracks individuals who have successfully lost an average of seventy-three pounds and kept off at least thirty pounds for more than six years. The registry notes that, regardless of the plan used to lose the weight, all of the registry members:
• Limit calories to around 1,800 per day by using portion control and counting calories per serving.
• Exercise daily—they never miss workouts.
• Watch less than ten hours of TV weekly.8
• Some of them use the “Five Pound Max Rule,” meaning if they regain five pounds, they immediately reinstitute the dietary plan they lost weight on until the five pounds are gone again.
The moral of the story is that in order to achieve weight loss and health gains, you need portion control. And in order to sustain those accomplishments, you still need portion control.
That is why I’ve repeatedly referred to awareness of eating in earlier chapters and why I emphasize that, even when it comes to the healthier Yes and Maybe So Foods, portion awareness is paramount. If you only remember one formula—remember that: Mindless eating + portion distortion = weight gain. You cannot have a food free-for-all, even with healthy foods! A calorie is a calorie, and too many calories will be a problem, regardless of the quality of the food from which they come.
Changing Your Family’s Portion Perception
How much food you take in should relate directly to your level of activity. (See Appendix 8A, “My Pyramid Food Intake Pattern Calorie Levels, U.S. Department of Agriculture.”) A sedentary person should probably eat around 400-500 calories less than an active person, as a general rule. A sedentary person who eats 2,200 calories per day could be slowly gaining weight daily or weekly, and it could be quite insidious—just kind of creeping up. A total of 1,800 calories might
be better, or if that leaves someone hungry, 1,800 calories plus extra calories in the form of Yes fruits and veggies. These foods are high in water content and fiber, so they fill the stomach with minimal calories per portion. Thanks to their fiber content, there’s also a better chance some of the excess calories from these foods will be digested and eliminated.9
It takes time to change any habit, and portion perception is probably one of the toughest. It can seem challenging, but remember that as your family makes the changes we’ve already discussed (better food choices, more activity, etc.), your new habits will help tremendously to calm down cravings, shift food preferences, and get you into a healthier zone of eating. Foods high in fiber and water content will also fill you up. You or your family may easily drop weight just by eating less sodium-laden, sugar-laden, fatty foods.
SWITCH IT OUT
It may help to make some food switches; when you swap an unhealthy food for a healthier one, you can sometimes eat a larger portion without increasing calories OR get greater health benefits for the same calorie amount:
• Switch out milk chocolate for dark chocolate.
• Switch out white wine for red wine.
• Switch out soda for unsweetened iced teas.
• Switch out whole milk and cream for evaporated or condensed fat-free milk and skim and 1 percent milk.
• Switch out high-calorie flavored drinks for low-calorie flavored waters.
• Switch out meat (some of the time) for lentils/beans.
• Switch out meat for fish.
• Switch out regular dairy products for fat-free dairy products.
• Think one teaspoon olive tapenade instead of mayo.
• Use unsweetened applesauce instead of butter.
• Think three tablespoons cocoa + one tablespoon fat-free condensed milk instead of baking chocolate.
• Add fruit and shredded veggies to bump up the volume and flavor of entrées.
OUTSMART DESSERT PORTIONS WITHOUT SACRIFICING PLEASURE
• Flip your dessert. Top fruit with a treat instead of topping a treat with fruit.
• Always share really decadent desserts.
• Try fondue. Dip fruits into dark chocolate sauce instead of crackers or bread into a cheese sauce.
• Make lighter versions of banana splits (with fat-free ice cream), cheesecake (with ricotta and fat-free cream cheese), pie with low-fat pudding fillings and whole grain crust, fresh non-fat yogurt-based desserts (add fruit, nuts, shaved dark chocolate).
• Embrace sorbets.
• Create thin crepes filled with fruit.
• Use melon halves as shells for the dessert presentation.
But in most cases, portion control is also necessary. You will need to gain control of overeating, even if you’re overeating healthy foods. Mindless eating, or eating for the wrong reasons (emotional eating), will sabotage your results. Noshing while at home all day, while watching TV or while in your car, mindlessly eating at work, taste testing during cooking, as well as nibbling as you clean leftovers off the dinner plates—these are all practices that can let unwanted calories slip in, because there are no boundaries in place.
Maybe you remember that famous line: “It’s 10 P.M. Do you know where your children are?” Every parent was affected by that public service announcement slogan because it forced us to stop and think about the safety of our children, especially if they were new drivers.
Well, here’s another slogan you need to keep in mind: “It’s dinner time. Do you know how much you are actually eating?” A full plate arrives at the table and we think, “It looks delicious and I’m really hungry and this must be how much food I need to feel full, right?” and we eat it all. Our eyes may have said, “Wow, that’s a lot of food,” but we don’t heed that message because there’s a disconnect. Too many of us don’t use our eyes-to-brain measuring stick, which quite often screams at us: “Large food plate coming down—go easy,” especially when it comes to enticing foods.
For years, I have been retraining my clients’ eyes so they actually see the portions within typical servings both inside and outside their homes. In the confines of your own kitchen, it’s easier to serve appropriately plated portions. I ask all families to adopt one habit: never serve foods family-style except for tossed salads and fruit salads. Plating food means portion control is already in place if you follow the protein/grain carbohydrate/vegetable format and if you end with a piece of fruit—not a second round of entrées.
Ten Tips to Encourage Family Portion Control
Use Small Plates
One of the most effective tools for retraining your family is to serve portions on somewhat smaller plates. A four- to six-ounce portion of protein, plus a baseball-size serving of grain, and lots of cooked veggies will look extremely satisfying on an eight- or ten-inch plate. On a large twelve- or fifteen-inch plate, it may seem paltry.
Communicate Your Downsizing Plan
Be sure to prepare your family. Let them know that super-size portions are not reasonable or healthy, and that you don’t want to fall into that trap, so you plan to rebel. All family members may not get on board right away, but that’s OK. They will probably respect your commitment,
even if they don’t show it. And you probably have more influence than you know. If nothing else, just employing this concept in the home will have an impact on the quantity of food you eat, even if old habits die hard outside the home. Habits outside the home can affect the habits you’re trying to develop inside the home, but the habits inside the home can impact eating going on outside the home, too. Changing portion perception will take time and there may be perceived or real hunger as you acclimate. Be patient, and don’t give up!
GET PORTIONS UNDER CONTROL
• When eating out, start the meal with an undressed salad (spoon dressing on yourself or dip the vegetables sparingly into the dressing).
• Put aside half the entrée immediately and ask for a double portion of steamed veggies.
• Consider ordering a large salad and an appetizer (they’re usually smaller) as your main course.
• Stick with water, diet soda, tomato juice, or skim milk.
• Order entrées baked or broiled with sauces on the side.
• Make sure steamed means without butter so you avoid extra fat calories and you get a true calorie-sized portion of vegetables.
• Order berries with a bit of chocolate dipping sauce as a dessert treat. This provides a portion-controlled Yes Food with only a little bit of caloric decadence from the sauce.
• Try to avoid buffets. Otherwise, create a salad base on the plate, then position small amounts or tastes of entrée selections.
• Use salad plates instead of the large dinner plates.
• Ditch the “clean plate mentality” and substitute the “healthfully full” mentality.
• Talk in between courses; it slows down eating.
• Avoid reading or watching TV while eating; you lose satiation awareness.
Slow Down
Anything that forces you to take more time with your meal will help contribute to portion control. Remember, we’re deciding to put a certain measure of food on our plate that’s reasonable for enjoyment and satiation, but if we shovel it in—instead of slowing down and savoring it—you will more than likely want more. The eating will happen way too fast and you may not have given your stomach a chance to start to feel full and send the appropriate signal to the brain. Encourage family discussion with involvement by every family member. Everyone needs to understand this physiological mechanism. Make your meals positive, fun experiences for everyone. Emphasize that what matters most are the people, the companionship, the sharing, and the togetherness. Make sure there’s no TV watching, put your fork down occasionally, and get up between courses just to slow the whole eating process down a bit. You won’t just be encouraging better portion control—you’ll be establishing solid eating patterns (priorities) that may continue to pay benefits into future generations.
Teach and Model Measuring by Hand
Show your family how to use hand measurements, and start using them yourself: a fist to represent bread carbohydrates (rice/pasta/ potato/peas/corn), a thumbnail for fat, an open palm for a thin slice of chicken breast or fish, two hands (palms down, thumbs underneath) with fingers outstretched and touching to visualize how much space your meal should generally cover on your plate.
Don’t Forget to Portion Drinks
If it’s water or unsweetened tea, drink as much as you want. Otherwise, pour any liquid with calories into tall, skinny glasses to make the amount look as large as possible; it is a practice that has been tested and found to help retrain the eyes-to-brain measuring stick I mentioned earlier. You’ll actually see a larger portion in this case, thanks to the shape of the glass, so you will be more likely to feel satisfied.
Make It Hard to Get To
When designers reconfigure kitchens, they look for ways to minimize steps for cooks, so less time is wasted tracing and retracing steps. You need to do the opposite when you “design” where to put treats and No Foods that you want to limit. Extra steps will give everyone extra time to reconsider their food choices.
Treats Need Special Portion Treatment
For many people, treats can be too tempting to resist (this can be true not only for kids, but for adults too). The best solution is either not to stock them at all, slowly shift some of the treats in your pantry and fridge to healthier treats, or pre-portion snacks and treats, either by dividing them into portions yourself or buying them that way. Remember you need to decide how many outright decadent treats your kids will have in a week and then you can shift to some foods that feel like treats but are whole grain or calcium-rich. If you are going to buy pre-portioned snacks, use common sense when bargaining with your children. A six-ounce Yoplait Light® 100-calorie snack is a great selection, while typical potato chips have very little nutritional value, and a 100-calorie portion of them is really quite small. If they still want the chips, you need to be clear that the small bag is a “treat portion size” and if they want more food at snack time, more must now be a Yes Food. A banana is a really satisfying fruit snack; you can make it more desirable by offering a bit of dipping chocolate as the “treat part.” Other kid-friendly snack choices include string cheese or a small serving of nuts (beware nut allergies). They do satisfy quickly. Here are some other portion-controlled options for healthier treats that are low in fat and sodium:
• Jell-O® fat-free pudding or tapioca, 100 calories
• Jell-O® fat-free puddings, various flavors, 60 calories
• Skinny Cow® low-fat ice cream sandwiches
• A small square of dark chocolate
• Oreo® thin crisps 100-calorie pack
• Nabisco® Honey Maid® thin crisps 100-calorie pack
• Fudgsicle® frozen treats (low-sugar)
• South Beach® 100-calorie snack bars
• South Beach® Diet Whole Wheat Crackers 100-calorie packs
• South Beach® Diet oatmeal chocolate chip cookies 100-calorie packs
• 100-calorie rice cake packs + 1 teaspoon of peanut butter
CONTAINER AND PORTION TRICKS
Sometimes your kitchen tools can encourage or discourage great portion habits. The trick is to turn to the sizes of containers (or bowls and cups) that can offer you individual measures of food, hold multiples of portions, or give you visual cues. Try these container tricks:
• Bowls that are sized for measured amounts, such as half-cup or one-cup bowls (great for yogurt). Available at http://www.yumyumdish.com.
• A sugar dispenser that portions out a half-teaspoon of sugar at a time. Available at http://www.wrapables.com.
• Plates that show (with lines sectoring the plate area) appropriate amounts of protein, vegetables, fruit and whole grain carbs. Available at http://www.theportionplate.com.
• A cereal dispenser that releases six-ounce portions at a time. Available at http://www.containerstore.com
Give Label Lessons
Reading labels is another great habit you can pass on to your family. They need to be able to tell how many portions are in a food container, the numbers of calories and the kind and amount of fat in each serving, and the sodium and sugar content per serving. They also need to be able to assess just how highly processed the product is. That’s how kids will learn to tell a “true No Food treat” from a treat that may have some better-quality ingredients (such as
those listed previously) from a Yes Food. We’ve included a basic food label breakdown here (see page 246). For more extensive label information, see “Labelman” at www.cfsan.fda.gov/labelman, which offers a series of online exercises to help you understand portions, calories, saturated fat, sodium, fiber, and calcium content on food labels.
PORTION RED ALERT
Some foods need tighter portion control than others:
1. Oils
2. Salad dressings
3. Dips
4. Nuts
5. Desserts/treats/processed carbohydrate foods
Learn as Many Visual Cues as You Can
One of the best ways to control portions is to learn as many visual cues that correlate to actual portion sizes as you can. When you’re eating out, you can’t measure precisely, so visual cues and comparisons give you an approximate association of portion size to some easily recognizable items. Here is a list of common cues:
Grains:
• Three-quarters cup cereal = a small fist
• One pancake = CD
• One-half cup cooked grain (pasta/rice/potato) = half of a baseball
• One slice of bread = cassette tape
• One piece cornbread = bar of soap
• One grain serving = three-inch make-up compact
Dairy/cheese:
• One ounce of hard cheese = two stacked dice
• One-half cup ice cream = half of a baseball
• Six-ounce yogurt = cell phone
• Two-ounce serving of cheese = 5-piece pack of gum
Fats:
• One serving = one die (from a pair of dice)
• One serving nuts = ping-pong ball
• One serving of baked chips = ring of keys laid out
TWO APPROACHES TO PLATING FOOD
Here are two convenient methods for determining your meal portions:
The New American Plate (based on the Swedish plate method used in Finland, France, and Canada):
Take an eight- to nine-inch plate.
Fill two-thirds of the plate with fruit, veggies, whole grains, and beans.
Fill one-third of the plate with seafood or poultry or lean red meat (occasionally).
The Idaho Plate Method (based on the Swedish plate system):
one-half plate: non-starchy veggies
one-quarter plate: grains or starchy veggies
one-quarter plate: protein
Note that in both cases, the height of the food should not exceed one-half inch (width of your little finger)—food shouldn’t be stacked.
Source: American Institute for Cancer Research
Veggies/Fruits:
• One cup salad greens = baseball
• One small baked potato or ear of corn = computer mouse
• One-half cup fresh fruit = half of a baseball
• One-quarter cup raisins = hard-boiled egg
• One fruit serving = small change purse
• Medium potato (starchy veggie) = gift card
Proteins (Meat, Fish, Beans, Tofu, Chicken):
• Three ounces = deck of cards or checkbook
• Burger = PDA
• Serving of nuts = box of Altoids®
Watch and Weigh
One of the best things you can do to get portion-savvy fast is to weigh foods on a small kitchen scale so you become accustomed to true food amounts. You will probably not need to weigh foods for very long in order to familiarize yourself with normal (not giant) portions. But it will do a lot to help you develop an eye for amounts and calorie counts, so that you and your family never have to suffer the consequences of portion-mad eating again. As I’ve also repeatedly emphasized, try to buy foods that are pre-measured (for example, raw fish and chicken in four- to six-ounce portions, dairy products in sixty- to eighty-calorie packs, deli meats in two- and four-ounce packages). This will also help accustom you to proper portion sizes because it provides repetitive exposures to exact measured amounts. The portion sizes you see on a regular basis are what you will get used to if you really do it consistently.
Amy’s Sample Day Menu with Portions
Just to give you an idea of how portion amounts work in a daily food plan, I created this sample daily menu that I have used for myself:
HFL QUICK-TIPS TO HELP YOU END THE MEAL
Portions are very important when it comes to considering daily food amounts, but just as you’re required to put a period at the end of a sentence, you still need to put a final end to the day’s eating. It’s especially important when you are trying to cut down on mindless munching. Here are some helpful techniques:
• Brush your teeth after dinner.
• Chew sugar-free gum after dinner.
• Sip a hot, low-calorie beverage like tea after dinner.
• Agree to avoid the kitchen until the next morning and physically close the door. (Oprah tries to do this).
Sample Daily Menu
Three grain servings, two dairy servings, two large protein servings (ten ounces total works for my particular frame and fitness level), three fruit servings, six veggie servings, two fat servings.
Breakfast
One-half cup of GOLEAN Crunch™ high-protein cereal
One-quarter cup Bran Buds®
One cup of fat-free vanilla yogurt
One-half cup berries
Two teaspoons crushed nuts
(One serving dairy, one serving cereal, one serving fruit, one serving fat)
One-quarter cup Bran Buds®
One cup of fat-free vanilla yogurt
One-half cup berries
Two teaspoons crushed nuts
(One serving dairy, one serving cereal, one serving fruit, one serving fat)
Morning Snack
Plum
(Second fruit for the day)
(Second fruit for the day)
Lunch
Two cups mixed greens
One quarter of a large cucumber
One-half cup shredded carrots
One quarter of a jicama
Two eggplant tomatoes
One-half cup shredded cabbage
One-half cup mushrooms
Four ounces soy deli slices, shredded
Two teaspoons of olive oil/vinegar dressing
Four baked crackers (second grain serving)
Iced tea
One quarter of a large cucumber
One-half cup shredded carrots
One quarter of a jicama
Two eggplant tomatoes
One-half cup shredded cabbage
One-half cup mushrooms
Four ounces soy deli slices, shredded
Two teaspoons of olive oil/vinegar dressing
Four baked crackers (second grain serving)
Iced tea
(Three servings of veggies, one four-ounce serving of protein, second bread-like carb serving for the day, second serving of fat)
Afternoon Snack
One peach
Small fat-free latte with sugar-free vanilla syrup
(Third fruit of the day, second dairy serving)
Small fat-free latte with sugar-free vanilla syrup
(Third fruit of the day, second dairy serving)
Dinner
Six ounces low-sodium V-8® vegetable juice cocktail
Six ounces of grilled fish
Two cups of steamed veggies with a bit of tomato sauce
One-half cup couscous (third grain)
Iced tea
Six ounces of grilled fish
Two cups of steamed veggies with a bit of tomato sauce
One-half cup couscous (third grain)
Iced tea
(Second serving of protein, three total servings of veggies [that’s my six servings], third serving of grains)
What Works for Me
The sample daily plan shows you what I would typically eat on a day during which I exercise quite intensively for about one hour. I have two days a week when I do a longer cardio and weight-training session; on those two days, I have a fourth grain serving and an additional fruit serving to help with replenish my energy reserves.
TEEN/ADULT DAILY BEVERAGE PORTION GUIDELINES
• Water: Unlimited.
• Unsweetened black coffee: Up to four servings.
• Unsweetened tea: Up to eight servings.
• Skim milk/unsweetened soymilk: Up to two 100-calorie servings (count as dairy).
• Diet soft drinks: Up to four servings/day.
• Whole milk, 2 percent fat milk, sports drinks: Limited, if at all.
• Soft drinks, juice: Very limited.
This outline follows the new Daily Health Beverage Guideline you’ll find at http://www.beverageguidancepanel.org/. Until recently, there was only a food pyramid.
I consider the eating plan outlined above my “maintenance” eating program. It’s about 1,500-1,600 calories (I no longer measure precisely because I really have the visual cues ingrained in my brain. I really do know when I’m spooning too much out on the plate or sizing my protein portions too large). When I want to drop a little weight, I lower my protein a bit (down to six to eight ounces daily) and drop a grain serving, taking me closer to 1,400 calories, while also increasing my cardiovascular training effort just a bit.
My personal assessment of my metabolism is that it runs a bit slow and I am also moving into perimenopause, which tends to affect women from the perspectives of metabolic rate and muscle mass. That’s why I’ve chosen my somewhat low daily maintenance calorie plan. I know myself well, and even though I am very active, even though I weight train to keep muscle mass on, aging is having an impact—I begin to gain weight easily when I move closer to 1,700-1,800 calories/day. Part of the HFL philosophy is “know thyself,
regardless of what your blessed neighbor can eat.” I can honestly say I’m not hungry on this plan.
HFL QUICK-TIP: DRINK OR DEVOUR?
It’s important to differentiate between thirst and hunger. Always try downing one or two cups of water or iced tea to see if you still feel hungry before munching on a food snack. One great liquid snack that kills two birds with one stone is low-fat chocolate milk.
I always hesitate to give precise calorie amounts to individuals trying to lose weight because, though there are general ranges that most nutritionists agree upon, based on current weight, gender and the goals you are targeting, sometimes you do need to play a bit with the numbers.
PORTION QUICK-TIP
When considering portion sizes for most proteins, try using a 50-60 calories per ounce guideline (to which most lean proteins will conform). So four ounces of fish, seafood, and white meats (skinless) would weigh in at around 200-240 calories (typically four to six ounces is an average, healthy-size portion of protein if you are following the HFL outline and adding a salad, fruit, and sometimes a whole grain carbohydrate to round out the meal). Use the same calorie guideline for other sources of protein, such as dairy products, tofu and soy products, eggs and egg whites, peanut butter, and lean meats (given that we’re establishing the fact that 200-250 calories for the protein part of a lunch or dinner meal is a pretty good serving size for the average individual).
LABEL READING 101
This label and an in-depth discussion of deciphering a food label can be found at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/foodlab.html.
Label Basics
Take immediate note of the serving size and the number of servings/package (in this case, two servings).
Note the calories/serving (in this case, 250 calories per serving, 500 calories for the whole thing).
Note the number of grams of fat, whether there is any trans fat and saturated fat (the presence of those two should be sufficient for you to want to make a better food choice)
How much sodium? If it’s more than 300 milligrams /serving—it’s a lot.
How much sugar? Is high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) present in the ingredients list?
Doing the Math
One gram of fat has 9 calories—so you multiply the number of grams of fat by nine. You can then tell the percentage of fat. In this case, 12 × 9 = 108 calories, which means that almost 50 percent of this serving (250 calories) is fat—way too high.
We also know that 27 (9 × 3) of those fat calories are from trans fat, and 27 (9 × 3) of the fat calories are from saturated fat.
Protein is 4 calories per gram, so in this case 4 × 5 = 20 calories—not a lot of protein to this food.
Carbs also gets multiplied by four calories, so 4 × 31 = 124, so this product has about nine teaspoons of sugar (one teaspoon has 16 calories).
Sodium is well over 300mg (470mg to be exact).
Overall assessment: This food has trans fat and saturated fat present, is high in fat, has a lot of sugar and sodium—so it does not qualify as an HFL Yes or Maybe So Food.
I find that making better food choices and just paying attention to portions (without severe restrictions) is often enough to produce some weight loss and better “numbers” (cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure) over time. If you do choose to eat more under those circumstances, it’s intentional; you’re taking an additional portion of
one of the food groups because you’re experiencing true hunger and you’re addressing it with a healthily portioned choice. So you’re now eating extra food with mindful awareness. Just add portion control to your current eating plan and your whole eating profile will shift, usually to a downward calorie trend. You will also find that you are more aware of what you are eating.
KNOW YOUR SWEET STATS AND SALTY FACTS
The average American consumes a minimum of twenty teaspoons of sugar/day; the World Health Organization recommends a target of about ten teaspoons of sugar daily.
A teaspoon of sugar has sixteen calories; a twelve-ounce can of soda has ten to eleven teaspoons of sugar.
Americans should shoot for 2,000mgs of salt or less/daily; deli meats, canned foods, frozen meals, and snacks are notorious for high levels of sodium (sometimes more than 900mgs of sodium per item).
CHAPTER 8 QUICK-SUMMARY
• Portion distortion is running rampant and families today are wearing “big” food on ever-expanding bodies. Your family needs to buck the trend and find portion sizes that are just right for you.
• Managing portions is not just a good idea, it’s essential for good health and successful weight management. Even healthy foods can’t be eaten free-for-all style.
• “See less, eat less” is a proven strategy—so you need to help your family retrain their portion perceptions by getting smart about how you present and stock food.
• Portion retraining will take time and requires patience, but these are lasting habits we’re building.
• Meals should be about quality and quantity, so focus on getting family meals on the table that are shared together and portion controlled—meaning you plate the food and only the salad and fruit come to the table family-style. Use the time together to enjoy a true family meal.
Tips for Teens
There is no easy way to take teens already conditioned to super-sizing and teach them to reduce portion sizes. In earlier chapters, I’ve talked about how teens may be motivated by athletic performance, dating pressure, or clothing styles to shift their eating patterns to healthier ones. Peer pressure and self-esteem issues are other incentives. It can also really help if your pediatrician weighs in on the health and weight issues.
The discussion of portion size is of paramount import when it comes to modifying teen eating patterns. They need to understand the best food combos, appropriate portions of snack vs. full meal
selections, and the need to hydrate adequately with the least caloric liquids. If they are on the constant fast-food/candy/soda track, this is going to require patience, a lot of dialogue, and possibly the involvement of a health professional if they are seriously overweight. If they have really outrageous patterns of eating oversized portions of fast foods and processed foods, and they are thin, you still need to talk about food choices and portion size from a health perspective. Too many “thin people” hit a huge metabolic swing in adulthood; those with no concept of portion control or understanding of true hunger/satiation are surely on the road to serious weight gain later in life. And of course, as I pointed out, large portion of high-sodium or high-fat food can create health problems in thin people.
Teens do need to be able to decipher a label so that they can make independent food selections in portion-sized amounts. They also need to be willing to check out nutritional info when it’s available at fast-food restaurants so they really understand how much they are eating from a caloric perspective and gain control of their food choices and portion sizes in general. Remember, these teens will soon be young adults, out on their own, and eventually parents one day. It may be reasonable for them to “test out” different daily calorie amounts so they can learn about energy vs. weight loss needs through self-discovery. If they’re involved in sports, a coach can offer support or advice as well. An athlete needs balanced meals/adequate calories. A growing teen also needs adequate calories to support a still growing body.
Tips for Kids
Understanding toddler or kid portions is important so you don’t literally train kids to want more and eat more. Remember that force-feeding a child the portion size you think is appropriate is a behavior that undermines a child’s feeling of satiation or hunger and their natural, built-in control. Let them graze or eat solid portion sizes that they themselves determine. If it’s a healthy HFL Yes Food or Maybe So Food, then you have little to worry about. If you’ve already “trained” your child to love too many treats or too much food then, yes, you will have to work diligently to get them to play more to offset calories
and work with them so they choose more Yes Foods when snacking. Over time, I do encourage you to downsize portions that you know are too adult-size or too big. I don’t encourage you to force-feed a child who stops eating when he or she feels full and who is growing well. These measured amounts are (also) important so you have some gauge of reasonable portion sizes integrated into meals for smaller individuals with smaller tummies.
Here are some examples of appropriate meals/snacks:
• One-half whole grain mini-bagel with one tablespoon nut butter and four ounces milk
• One-half slice of pizza with four ounces of calcium-fortified orange juice
• Four ounces of low-fat fruit yogurt and a small slice of whole grain toast
• Fruit and yogurt smoothie made with four ounces of low-fat yogurt, one-half banana, one-quarter cup frozen berries
• One hard-boiled egg with four baked whole grain crackers
• Two tablespoons hummus or nut butter with four baked crackers
• One whole grain waffle, folded and cut up, with one tablespoon nut butter, and four ounces low-fat milk
• One-half cup cereal plus one-half cup low-fat milk
• One-half cup thinly cut veggies plus one-quarter cup bean dip
• One-quarter cup low-fat cottage or ricotta cheese with cinnamon and four baked crackers
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