Diet & Fitness 

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The iVillage food size guide

Ever wondered what constitutes a proper portion of pasta or what is meant by a serving of veg? Dr Wynnie Chan explains how to get your fair share

Hands up if your idea of a pasta dinner is filling up a mammoth-sized bowl until it spills over the edges. Or maybe you only feel like you should stop after tucking into that fifth piece of bread? If these scenarios sound familiar, you’re not alone. While we all wonder about the correct portions of foods, the chances are we usually go overboard. In the long run, this means we take in many more calories than we realise, sabotaging our attempt to maintain a healthy weight. Together with regular physical activity, a balanced diet can help us stay at our desired body weight and reduce our chance of developing diet-related illnesses like cardiovascular disease, some cancers, stroke and high blood pressure.

So, what are the correct proportions of calories and nutrients in a proper diet? The Department of Health’s report on Dietary Reference Values recommends you should get the following percentage of calories per day: less than 35% from fat, 50% from carbohydrates and 15% from protein. You should also eat 18 grams of fibre a day (on food labels, this may be listed as non-starch polysaccharides). While these numerical targets are essential for health professionals in assessing patients, they can be confusing to most of us who think in terms of specific foods rather than nutrient values.

The National Food Guide’s Balance of Good Health plate model provides a visual guide to help us understand how to make healthy food choices. It suggests the proper proportions of each food group that make up a balanced diet. However, it should only be used as a guideline since people’s dietary needs vary according to age, sex, activity, health, body size and genetics. The following list should help you visualise what constitutes a serving or portion of each food group.

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