How to Calculate Food Quantities
It is often difficult to calculate food quantities and serving portions. If the food comes prepackaged, the label will tell you the quantity of a single serving of food, along with how many servings are in the package. When cooking from scratch, the quantity of a single serving is harder to determine. Fortunately, the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute has made it simple to determine portion size by comparing food servings to simple household items. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Consider a meat portion the size of a deck of playing cards after cooking. A fish serving would be equal to the size of a regular checkbook. One serving of peanut butter would be about the size of a ping pong ball. One egg is always calculated as one serving.
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Think the size of a baseball when calculating a serving of fresh greens. A half of a baseball equals a serving of fresh fruit, ice cream or starchy foods like pastas, potatoes or rice.
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A serving of bread is equal to the size of a cassette tape, while a pancake serving is the size of a CD or DVD.
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Dry cereal and baked potatoes can be measured as about the size of your fist to make a single portion.
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Compare cheese cubes and butter to playing dice that come with board games. Four dice-sized cubes of cheese equal a serving, while a serving of butter equals one dice.
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Tips & Warnings
Comparing food servings to household items makes the job of serving correct portions easy without measuring cups or a kitchen scale. The approximate serving sizes listed are based on the USDA Food Pyramid. By eating proper portion sizes and following the USDA Food Pyramid recommendations, you can achieve a regular, healthy diet.
