03/24/08 Eating Healthy

Small, medium, or large? No, I'm not talking French fries or soda fountain here, it's actually a question many of us who are trying to eat healthy ponder over when it comes to fruit and vegetable servings. We're told that a serving is a "medium" apple, small banana or cup of lettuce. Now really, is that a cup of lettuce leaves, torn or chopped?! And if I placed a steak serving, which is considered to be the size of a playing card, in front of my husband he would only laugh and ask where the rest of the steak went! To make it easier, I say that tongue in cheek, they now recommend that a medium piece of fruit is the size of a tennis ball, 1 cup vegetables the size of a baseball and a medium potato the size of a computer mouse. All in all, I suggest that to eat healthy, we not worry about the portion size of our fruit and vegetable servings, just make sure we do eat several servings from these two food groups during the day, the more the merrier. And if you really feel the need to measure your food portions, make it that triple layer chocolate cake, which for good "measure" is a serving the size of a postage stamp.