In case you haven't noticed, serving sizes from restaurants, packaged foods and fast food have doubled-if not tripled in size and in calories over the last 20 years. Stores offer us soda cups as big as our faces, bread that is the same size our our hands. To illustrate how much it changed, if you were to eat your normal serving size and portions today, compared to 20 years ago, an additional intake of 1,600 calories just happened, and that is not something that can be easily shrugged off.
Subconsciously, this changed also the way we consume food at home. It influences the portions of everything we eat and is seen as a contributing factor leading to chronic diseases such as Diabetes Type II and Heart conditions.
But did you know that portions and serving sizes are different? If you want to start living healthier, in terms of your food intake, it is basic to understand their distinction.
According to the National Institute of Health, Portion is "the amount of food and beverage one person chooses to eats at one time. It can be big, small, you decide." Meanwhile, a Serving is "a standardized measured amount of food or drink, such as one slice of bread or one cup (eight ounces) of milk." Basically, you control your portions while the serving is predetermined and set by measurements and standards. However, Packaged food servings are defined by the Food and Drug Administration, following guidelines that manufacturers are required to follow and observe. They are basing the serving size of packaged meals on a "Reference Amount Customarily Consumed" (RACC) value, which is the amount of a certain food the average person is likely to eat in one sitting."
You can find the serving size under the Nutrition Facts on packaged foods, based on RACC values. The suggested serving size can be different from the portion you choose to consume. For example, one serving size of potato chips are only 7 chips, but you ate around 35 pieces. This means you consume five servings in one sitting, you have to multiply the data from the nutrition facts by five-calories, fat, carbs, sugar multiplied by five.
The RACC is determined and studied over a long period of time by nutritionists and food organizations that collected data from various studies conducted by the US Department of Agriculture between 1970s and 1980s-a time when an average American eats less compared to now. The FDA began to update their data in 2005 to adjust to these changes. However, the new set of guidelines on controlling serving sizes is not yet completed, but is targeted to take effect this year.
This story originally ran on The Huffington Post.
