Portion Control
Introduction (5 min)
Week 2 Goals - Let’s talk about the goal you made last week and what challenges, if any, did you have?
Our goal for this week’s class is to encourage you to practice portion control through label reading & learn portion size guide recommendations. As we talk through today’s lesson, think about a new goal for you and your family for this week. We will discuss and go over your thoughts at the end of our session!
Objectives : By the end of the session, families will be able to
1 Understand portion size information on food labels.
2 Be able to apply portion size recommendations to mealtime.
3 Suggest 3 ways to avoid portion size pitfalls.
Icebreaker (5 min) – Portion distortion picture and calorie matching handout
Nutrition (30 min)
1 The Food Label:
● Using the Food Label Handout, go over the nutrition facts label. Have an actual food label for each individual or family. Discuss the Nutrition
Facts on a food label starting with serving size and servings per container. Ask someone to share their serving size information with the group. Then discuss the servings per container and its relevance to amount per serving. The serving size is not necessarily the recommended portion size for healthy eating. We will be going over common portion sizes of foods later.
● Question for the group: Does the serving size listed on the label indicate the amount that you should be eating? Answer: No - the serving size listed on the label is there to provide the calories, fat, sugar and other nutrition information for specific amounts of food. It’s important to know the portion size of a food.
● Go over amount per serving, discussing calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, and protein. Show them how to calculate the various amounts per serving if they ate a 2 cup portion. Then, have

participants calculate the calories per serving of their food model label if they ate 1 cup portion. Have them share with the class.
● Show sodium, fat, and sugar examples to demonstrate what the food model numbers mean and can look like.
2 Portion Size Recommendations:
● Using the WebMD Portion Size Guide handout, go over the various recommendations. The goal of this handout is to show you how common it is to misjudge portion sizes. As you can see these are some basic guidelines per food group.
● Have the baseball, light bulb, golf ball, poker chip, deck of cards, and checkbook. Show these to the families.
● Show a standard plate with the serving sizes of food on it.
If these portion sizes seem small, don’t panic. Remember you are allowed to have multiple servings from each food group each day.
-2 cup fruit
-1-3 cup vegetables
-3 (kids)-4 oz grains
-5 oz (kids), 5-6 oz (adults)
-2-3 cups dairy
-3-6 teaspoons oils
3 Avoiding Portion Size Pitfalls:
● Using the “Avoiding Portion Size Pitfalls” game board handout, go over all helpful tips. Have each participant move to each tip and read aloud.
(we can elaborate as necessary)
● Have families brainstorm/write down more tips that may work for their family and share with the group.
○ Ex. If you like to see a full bowl of cereal, choose a lower-calorie cereal.
○ Buy smaller bowls and cups.
○ Measure foods out with measuring cup when you want to check if you are having a good portion size.

● Make sure to mention eating three regular meals during a day, and to eat slowly - can prevent over-eating later in the day.
Activity: Have the family bring out their own serving items from home, and compare with standard serving sizes.
4 Tips for eating out at restaurants: Research shows that the more often a person eats out, the more body fat he or she has. Try to prepare more meals at home. Eat out and get takeout foods less often. But if you have to go out to eat, here are some tips that can help!
● Have you noticed that it only costs a few cents more to get larger sizes of fries or soft drinks at restaurants? Getting a larger portion of food for just a little extra money may seem like a good value, but you end up with more food and calories than you need for your body to stay healthy.
● Before you buy your next “value combo,” be sure you are making the best choice for your wallet and your health. If you are with someone else, share the largesize meal. If you are eating alone, skip the special deal and just order the smaller
(healthier) size.
● Order a half-portions, or order an appetizer as a main meal. Examples of healthier menu items include grilled, steamed, or baked seafood, minestrone soup, tomato or corn salsas, and vegetable salads with dressing on the side.
Order foods without gravies or cream sauces.
● Check the menu for terms and icons that indicate healthy items, such as low-fat, low-calorie dishes.
● When your meal comes, place half of it aside right away, and ask for a to-go container.
● Although it has been said in the past to clear your pate, stop when you’re full and leave the rest
● Avoid large beverages such as “super size” sugar-sweetened soft drinks. They have a large number of calories. Instead, try drinking water with a slice of lemon.
If you want to drink soda, choose a calorie-free beverage or a small glass of regular soda.
Smoothie Taste Test (10 min)

Smoothies will be prepared in class by the instructors. They will have all ingredients for one of the smoothie recipes ready to just blend and serve to participants in a Dixie cup. Passport to Tasting
Talking Point : Smoothies are an example of something that you might not need an exact recipe for, as long as you are aware of relative amounts you can make yourself a healthy smoothie every time!
Goal Setting & Closing (10 min)
Now that we have discussed great ideas about controlling your portions and reading food labels, let’s set a goal for this week! a Some examples: Try to portion out your foods before eating meals, check labels, try to only eat one serving of prepackaged foods
Resources:
WebMD
CDC.gov
FDA.gov
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/just_enough.htm#g
Bring:
Food labels smoothie stuff bananas - T strawberries frozen berries - T spinach - T greek yogurt - T measuring cups - T

baseball hockey puck - K lightbulb - T golf ball - T deck of cards - T checkbook
Webmd handout food label handout blender cups straws hand sanitizer - T napkins - T
Standard plate size