Although we might choose healthy snacks and food – our portion sizes are often too large! Spend time familiarising yourself with the correct portion sizes and allowances for your food.
Even if you are eating the correct type of foods you can still eat too much at one sitting. The body can only process so much food at any one time. The rest will be stored as body fat. To avoid this scenario, base your diet around 3 meals per day and 2 small snacks in between.
Easy Ways to Size up Your Portions
| Vegetables (five servings) | Weight/measure / serving size |
| Green leafy vegetables | Unlimited |
| Cooked | ½ cup |
| Raw | 1 cup |
| Fruit (two servings) | Serving size |
| Fresh | 1 medium or 2 small pieces |
| Dried | 1½ tablespoons sultanas, 4-5 apricots/prunes/figs |
| Carbohydrates | Serving size |
| Bread | 2 small slices |
| Muesli or wholegrain cereal | ½ cup |
| Rice, bulgar, freekeh, quinoa | ½ cup |
| Pasta | 1 cup |
| Sweet Potato | 100 grams (½ cup cooked) |
| Corn | 1 cob |
| Legumes | ½ cup |
| Healthy Fats | Serving size |
| Oil | 1 teaspoon |
| Oil vinaigrette | 1 tablespoon |
| Tahini and natural peanut butter | 3 teaspoons |
| Raw nuts and seeds | 30g (a small handful) |
| Cheese | 30g (size of a small matchbox) |
| Protein | Weight/measure serving size |
| Lean meat, poultry, oily fish | 150g (equivalent to the size of the palm of your hand) |
| White fish | 180g (size of your whole hand) |
| Tinned fish | 80g (small can) |
| Skim milk | 250ml (1 cup) |
| Yoghurt (low-fat, plain) | 125g (½ cup) |
| Legumes | ½ cup |
| Tofu | 120g (palm of your hand) |
| Eggs | 100g (2 medium whole eggs) |
