A SERVING OF FOOD IS NOT WHAT WE NORMALLY PUT ON OUR PLATE OR WHAT WE ARE SERVED IN A RESTUARANT! Remember this when you eat as you may be consuming far more calories, sugar, carbs, etc than you realize. For instance, a Seder serving of cereal, grain, or pasta is 1/2 cup. That’s right, 1/2 cup. When was the last time you ate only 1/2 cup of cereal, oatmeal, or pasta? You get the idea? One serving of a bread product is 1 ounce, not a half basket of the rolls they bring to your table at a restuarant or a couple of hambuger or hot dog buns. By the time they bring your food in some of the restuarants that bring out bread first, you’ve probably already gone over your calorie and carb quotient. It is very important for diabetics especially to remember this! Most vegetables are also in the 1/2 cup catagory for cooked vegetables or vegetable juice. A Seder serving of raw vegetables is generally 1 cup. For fruit the general rule is 1/2 cup of fresh fruit or fruit juice. That goes down to 1/4 cup for dried fruit. And a serving of meat is 4 ounces or about the size of a deck of cards. Don’t fool yourself into thinking, “I only ate one plate full.” Stop to think about what was on that plate. When eating at home, measure your servings until you get to the point where you can reasonably guess how much equals a serving. When eating out, especially at restuarants that serve big portions, ask for a to-go box and put half of your meal in it before you even start eating. Again, this is especially important for diabetics as you must keep your calories and carb intake under control. And franky, it’s easier if half the food is already out of sight. You also have a bonus. You have another meal to take home and have the next day. Here in America we have gotten “hooked” on “Super-Sized meals” and frankly that is not good for us! Eating everything on your plate is not going to help some hungry child in a third world country, as many of us were told as children. So don’t use that, or anything else for that matter, as an excuse to overeat. It’s your health at stake!
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