Exactly how large is a "portion"?

Healthy portion size is hard to identify these days. Restaurants super-size meals and snack foods are sold in extra-large, single-serve packages. Even the dishes we eat from tend to be larger, making our food portions appear smaller.

The following guidelines will help you to be better equipped to consume healthy quantities of food based on visual appearance:

Food Quantity Visual size
Meat   1 oz. matchbox
Meat   3 oz.* bar of soap
Meat 8 oz thin paperback book
Fish 3 oz.* checkbook
Cheese 1 oz. 4 dice
Potato medium*  computer mouse
Peanut butter 2 T ping-pong ball
Pasta ½ cup*   tennis ball
 Bagel average*  hockey puck

* recommended portion size

Another useful hint – Serve your food on smaller size plates.