A short while ago I wrote a review about the Instinct Diet. The research behind this diet is so meaningful because it supports what we already knew all too well. We eat more than we need because we CAN! We have evolved as human beings in a way that prompts us to eat when food is available. That’s normal! The problem is that food is available all too often and we no longer have a good concept of what is enough.

How has this come about? Having access to plenty of food is a blessing, something that was not experienced by most humans throughout history. Knowing what to do about the easy access to abundant food is another story. It has become harder to judge what is enough in part because the norm no longer matches our needs.

Portion sizes in restaurants and packaged foods have grown substantially over the years. What was once considered to be a large portion is now standard fare. Combine larger portions with the admonishment to clean our plates and we have a real problem. As a general rule Americans have learned to eat the food they are served. This is one way in which we limit what we eat by external cues. In many other cultures, people will more often limit what they eat based on internal cues of fullness and satisfaction. (To learn more about internal vs. external cues for eating as well as the dominant food culture in the United States read See it, Eat it with tips from Brian Wansink, PhD, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think )

Research by Marion Nestle, PhD (chair, Nutrition and Food Studies, NYU) has shown us that the trend toward bigger portions began in the 1970’s. I was a college student in the 70’s. I remember how a serving of french fries was a small amount, about 2-4 ounces totaling 210 calories. Now fries can be 6-7 ounces with a whopping 610 calories or so. Bagels were once about 3 inches in diameter and had about 140 calories. Now bagels can be 5-6 inches in size and have 350 calories or more! Beverages need an entire article of their own to cover the changes over the last 30-40 years. (You may want to read: The Beverages You Drink May be Making you Fat!)

Here’s what you can keep in mind to gain back some control over how much you eat. “Portions” refer to how much we are served by a restaurant or food packager or what we serve ourselves and it may have little to do with what we need. “Serving sizes” relate to the recommended amount of food a person needs based on sex, age, and activity level.

You can get a sense of how much you need by referring to the USDA Food Pyramid. (Be prepared to click on lots of links!) Or better yet, determine your caloric needs and then refer to the 1200 calorie diet plan or 1500 calorie diet plan I share on this site. You’ll get an idea of how many servings you need from each food group and how much constitutes a serving. (Read Calories Count to determine your caloric needs for weight loss or maintenance.)
To learn more about how much you eat and the ways in which you may need to change you may want to read about the benefits of keeping a food diary

You might also find it helpful to have a visual in your mind of the size of a serving. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has come up with some visual guidelines
to give you an easy to remember picture in your mind of the size of a serving for different foods.

What Does a Serving Look Like?

Vegetables and Fruits:

1 cup of salad greens = a baseball

1 baked potato = a fist

1 medium fruit = a baseball

1/2 cup cut fresh fruit = 1/2 baseball

1/4 cup of raisins = a large egg

Grain Products:

1 cup of cereal flakes = 1 fist

1 pancake = compact disc

1/2 cup cooked rice, pasta, or potato = 1/2 baseball

1 piece of cornbread = a bar of soap

Dairy and Cheese:

1 1/2 oz. cheese = 4 stacked dice or 2 cheese slices (Yes, my drawing only shows 3 Dice!)

1/2 cup ice cream = 1/2 baseball

Meat and Alternatives:

3 oz. meat, fish, or poultry = a deck of cards

3 oz. grilled/baked fish = a checkbook

2 Tbsp. of Peanut Butter = a ping pong ball

Fats:

1 tsp. margarine or spreads = 1 die (referring to dice)

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

If you have been making progress with respect to eating a healthier diet then getting a handle on portion size may be your next step to successful weight loss and maintenance. Good luck!

In my next post I will share the menu for day 2 of the 7 Day Diet Plan for weight loss with a healthy 1200 calorie diet including how you can modify the plan for a 1300, 1400, or 1500 calorie diet. Till then watch those calories, portion sizes, and eat healthy food!

Maintenance weight loss

In the first part of this article I talked about why fruits and vegetables might be just what you need to give you the winning edge in managing your weight. (Fruits and Vegetables Best Choice for 2009) Today I would like to share my thoughts on how you might make it easier to regularly include more fruits and vegetables in your diet.

The cost of fresh fruits and vegetables especially off-season might dampen your enthusiasm for my suggestion. Unfortunately, some of the least healthy food is also the least expensive. There are many reasons for this including certain government policies that made sense 40-50 years ago but not any longer. However, that’s a topic for another day.

Hopefully we may see some changes in government policy and otherwise that might make fruits and vegetables more affordable in the near future. In the meantime, I have some suggestions that may help a little. When you plan your food budget do keep in mind the enormous health benefits of fruits and vegetables as well as the opportunity to more easily manage your weight.

Cost of Fruits and Vegetables

•Minimize your costs by buying fresh fruits and vegetables by season (whenever possible buy local and organic). Imported produce can sometimes be more expensive than what is grown in the United States.

•When fresh is limited or not available, choose to buy less expensive canned fruits or vegetables. You may also find frozen to be cheaper than fresh. The nutritional value of frozen is as good and might even be better than fresh. Canned produce may have somewhat less in the way of certain nutrients but is still a good choice.

(Note: Choose canned or frozen options without added sugar, syrup, cream sauces, or other ingredients that add calories.)

•Whenever possible, avoid buying pre-cut fruits and vegetables for enormous savings. The convenience may be nice but you pay dearly for that.

The cost of fruits and vegetables may or may not be an issue for you but what about meal and snack ideas? And what kind of simple changes might you make in your routine to make it more likely that fruits and vegetables are a part of your diet more often?

Tips for Simplifying

•Pick one day at the beginning of your week to wash and cut fruits and vegetables. Put each in a separate container, if necessary. (Add a little lemon juice to cut apples and pears to keep them from browning. Or just leave these whole to eat fresh as is.)

Now you have a supply of fruits and vegetables ready for snacks or to include in a meal later in the week. This will not only save you precious minutes when its time to cook but will also make it more likely you will grab one of these containers for a ready-to-eat, healthy, and low calorie snack.

•Add leafy greens (such as spinach, red leaf lettuce, romaine), tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, green peppers, and more to sandwiches and lighten up on the meat and cheese.

•Don’t forget fruit. Thinly sliced apples can make a great addition to a turkey or chicken sandwich for extra flavor and nutrition. Sliced bananas or, better yet, low calorie berries go well with peanut or other nut butters instead of jelly or jam.

•Add chopped veggies to broth based soups (whether homemade or canned), stir-fried dishes, pasta, omelets, and pizza toppings. Eat more veggies and there is less room for higher calorie pasta, rice, or bread.

•Strive for having half your plate at mealtime filled with fruits and vegetables. Do eat off of smaller plates for smaller portions and fewer calories.

•Potatoes eaten with the skin can be a healthy choice; however, do limit how much you eat. They have a high starch (carbohydrates) content and as such are more similar to bread or cereals with respect to calorie count.

Recipe Ideas

If you need a bit of inspiration when it comes to additional ideas on ways to prepare fruit or vegetables, what you may need are photos and recipes that make your mouth water. Here’s just a few of the places I go for inspiration both offline and on.

The next time you are at a shop with a magazine rack, flip through a few issues of some of the better cooking magazines. I especially like the magazines geared for vegetarians. You don’t need to be a vegetarian to get inspired and enjoy the recipes you’ll find!

The latest issue of Vegetarian times (January 2009) caught my eye with the lead story of “Lose Weight, Gain Energy: 35 satisfying recipes under 300 calories”. After only a minute or two looking at the enticing photos and recipes and I was hooked. I don’t buy magazines very often but this one came home with me!

No time for magazines? No problem. There are lots of great online sites for inspiration:

Check out Flickr photos (online) for pictures of vegetarian recipes from around the world. Not all of the photos will appeal to you (or feature fruits and vegetables) but the ones that do are sure to inspire you to be more creative with your meals and snacks.

Flickr Vegetarian Group

Have you had a chance to read my review article of some of the best online sites for low calorie and healthy recipes?

Healthy Low Calorie Recipes: 8 Super Sites

Veggie Meal Plans (A blog site with lots of good recipes and sometimes very appealing food photos.)

Fruits and Vegetables Matter

One of my favorite all around recipe sites is RecipeZaar. What I especially like is the ability to drill down and find specific kinds of recipes. I did a basic search for low calorie fruit recipes and came up with over 6,000 recipes. I took a look at the calorie counts for some of the recipes and many were on the high side. So I then chose to “filter by nutrition” and did a search for low calorie fruit recipes with less than 100 calories per serving.

This narrowed the results down to 198. At that point I could have chosen to filter by course (breakfast, snack, main dish, etc.), ingredient, preparation (time to make, simple, etc.) or occasion (seasonal, holiday, etc.). Very nice!

(Note: If the link for the filter for low calorie fruit recipes with 100 calories or less per serving doesn’t work, just do your own search at www.recipezaar.com following my tip.)

Low Calorie Fruit Recipes

A search at RecipeZaar for low calorie vegetable recipes with 100 calories or less per serving turned up 48 recipes:

Low Calorie Vegetable Recipes

For more about nutrition and the value of fruits and vegetables for weight loss you might want to read:

Fruits and Vegetables: Nutrition Source, Harvard School of Public Health

Last but not least, I wanted to share with you a list I came across at Health.com (Health magazine) for the 10 best supermarket chains. These are the stores selected by six prominent health experts as being the best of the largest chain stores for delivering the freshest and healthiest food possible.

These stores may not be available where you live. That doesn’t mean you are out of luck. There are a number of smaller chain stores and other grocery stores with an outstanding selection of healthy choices that did not make this list because of size.

In addition, some of the stores listed may not be the best for you based on cost. And just because a chain store may have received high marks in general doesn’t mean a particular branch store where you live is as good. It may not have the kind of management necessary to assure the same high quality guidelines as the same shop in another city.

1. Whole Foods
2. Safeway
3. Harris Teeter
4. Trader Joe’s
5. Hannaford
6. Albertson’s
7. Food Lion
8. Publix Super Markets
9. Pathmark
10. Super Target

If you have some time, I would encourage you to read the original article to see what some of these shops offer and what kinds of things matter when it comes to making healthy choices: America’s Healthiest Grocery Stores

Do start out the New Year with a plan. Eat more fruits and veggies. Good luck with this and best wishes for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight!

Health Maintenance weight loss