A mum recently wrote to us concerned about whether she was giving her children the right portion sizes. She said “It doesn’t seem to matter how much I give them in a serve they always want more. I have just started an eating plan myself and it would seem I have had portions for myself all wrong.”
This is such a great question, because it’s easy to be confused these days. There is so much information out there – dietary guidelines, serving sizes, talk of calories, kilojoules, energy requirements, food labels with % of recommended daily requirements, the Heart Foundation Tick, the Health Star Rating System, advertising telling us why we should eat their products, foods designed to be addictive, and more. It’s no wonder there are questions about What Is The Right Portion Size?
As parents we all want to do what’s right for our kids, but who has time to count and measure everything into portions? Is it really necessary? Feeding our family shouldn’t be this complicated. I do believe there is a simple answer to all of this.
Important Note
Before I go into trying to help solve this riddle, it’s really important I say this upfront: I am mum, and a health coach. I am not a dietician, nutritionist or GP. The information I provide in this blog and others is for information purposes only. It should not be used to replace expert advice from your own medical practitioners.
What is a Portion Size, Anyway?
Portion size is often confused with serving size, and while these two are intertwined, they are in fact 2 different things. So let’s get clear on what is a serving size, and what is a portion size.
Simply put, a portion size is the amount of food you eat in a single meal.
A serving size, on the other hand, is a recommended amount of a specific food from one of the five food groups, as outlined in The Australian Dietary Guidelines (or something similar.) For instance, 1 serve of fruit is equal to a medium banana or apple, and 1 serve of vegetables is equal to a 1/2 cup of cooked green or orange vegetables.
The Australian Government’s Eat For Health website has loads more information (feel free to dig in if you like), but you still won’t find a definitive single answer about what is a portion size here. Why? Because there is no definitive answer.
Portion sizes need to take into account a person’s age, their growth and development, and their level of physical exertion. This is why “What is the right portion size?” cannot really be answered anywhere in a simple, straightforward way.
Why Do Portion Sizes Matter?
There is so talk about portion sizes now because we have a health crisis. Australia has more overweight or obese people than ever before in history, and this is leading to a range of chronic illnesses.
There has been a shift from eating real foods, to more meals and snacks containing processed foods, all at the same time as becoming more sedentary. Let’s take a look at how this has happened:
We’re eating more
- The average size of our dinner plates has increased by 36% since the 1960’s
- Research shows we eat 92% of what’s put on our plate, so bigger plate sizes means many people may be eating more than required
- Companies are making packet foods containing more than 1 serve, but then the whole packet gets eaten or drunk
- Fast food chains have upsell/upsize techniques in place which appear to represent better value for money, so many buy the upsell
Food Choices have changed
- Since the 70’s, our supermarket shelves have exploded with processed packaged foods
- There are now approximately 80,000 processed packaged foods available
- These products have been very successfully marketed as convenient and a replacement for real food
- There has been an increase in the number of fast food chains selling ‘foods’ which are pitched at replacing our main meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Health studies in Australia show only 5.1% of Australians eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables each day
- A study in 2013 found Australians were eating out or eating prepared meals 2.5 times a week
- Australian Bureau of Statistics data also indicates Australian households are spending less time on food preparation than previously
- Another report found Australians rated price and convenience HIGHER than taste in food
- Marketing and advertising of processed packet foods now dominates our screen, radio and other media (e.g. billboards), so these foods are now top of mind for many
- Manufacturers of processed food use food technology and science to create products which are designed to be addictive, and get us to want to keep eating it (whether it’s good for us or not)
- Research shows 55% of purchasing choices are made based on the front of the packet label
Decline in Physical Activity
- Technology changes means many jobs are no longer as physically active as say 50 years ago
- Smartphone technology and social media now mean many people turn to these devices during their down time rather than physical activity
- There has been a shift from outdoor play to screen time for our children too
- There are more people playing sport than ever before but their total physical activity rate has dropped
Over the last 20 years, an imbalance has occurred. Technology has led to lifestyle and work changes, causing a reduction in our physical activity. At the same time, we’re eating less whole foods and more processed foods.
Majority of processed foods are made from a combination of any or all of these ingredients – sugar, fat, salt, additives and preservatives. For the most part, processed foods are empty, with little nutritional value. These foods usually make us eat faster, they don’t take long to digest and we feel hungry sooner, so we eat more. But we don’t exercise more.
Whole foods on the other hand, contain fibre, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, which our body needs and can use efficiently. These foods take longer for our body to digest and we get longer value out of them. Because they aren’t loaded with fats, sugars etc, the level of exercise is less of a concern.
Getting The Portion Size Right
People come in all shapes and sizes. Their level of activity may also be different. Therefore, their portion sizes need to be different. Unfortunately, there really is no “One Size Fits All” answer to this question.
To get the portion size right, it’s important to understand the following:
- WHAT you eat (is it whole food or processed food)
- HOW MUCH you’ve already eaten (in the day)
- HOW MUCH you exercise / exert
- What stage of GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT you’re at (remember, adults have done their growth and development, whereas children (depending on their age) may still be changing – bone structure, height, hormonal etc)
- Do you need to MAINTAIN, LOSE OR GAIN weight
- HOW is your body feeling?
When considering your portion sizes for your meals, considerations such as age and the level of physical activity are important. For example 2 children of the same age, height and weight may need totally different portion sizes depending on their level of physical activity. If you have 2 children say only 2 years apart, the younger one is super active and is going through a growth spurt but the other is not, it’s entirely possible the younger one may in fact need larger portion sizes than the older sibling.
Equally, it’s quite possible if you’re eating mainly processed foods, you haven’t done much exercise today and you need to lose weight, then it’s possible you may need smaller portion sizes.
How Much Is Enough?
Regardless of whether you’re feeding your family processed or whole foods, one of the most important ways to understand How Much Is Enough is to learn to understand how our body is feeling. Sometimes we eat because we are bored rather than hungry. Sometimes we eat because we’re upset rather than hungry. Sometimes we eat because we’re expected to eat. Sometimes we eat because we’re hungry and that’s great.
We need to be able to label how our body is feeling, particularly around food. For instance, you probably hear your kids say I’m hungry, I’m starving, or I’m full. The reality is our jobs could be easier if we all learnt to listen to our body and understand how it was feeling before we eat, and during eating.
- I’m peckish – I need a smaller portion of food. Perhaps if they haven’t drunk much water today, a drink of water may solve this
- I’m hungry – I need a normal portion of food
- I’m starving – I have done a lot of running around today, and need a bit bigger portion than usual. This could also be at times when their body is going through a growth spurt
- I’m ravenous – I have been doing loads of sport, maybe late nights for study, my body is changing – I need a bigger portion than usual
- I’ve had enough – This is the point before you become full, perhaps when you’re 1/2 full
- I’m full – Quite often our kids say they are full when they don’t want to eat their dinner because perhaps they don’t like it. Or they say they are full when it’s too late. Sometimes it’s because they’ve overeaten
- I’m stuffed – This happens when we eat too much but don’t realise until it’s too late
- I’m sluggish – I am lacking energy and need food which will give me a real boost
- I’m hangry – I have left eating way too late. Now I am hungry and angry (EEEK!)
You can probably even think of more labels than this. Please add them in the comments so we can share them around.
The reason why this is so important is because our body takes a bit of time to catch up with how we are feeling when we eat. We should really only eat to the point where we recognise “I’ve had enough”.
A Hunger Game
One of the best ways you can work this out, is to talk to your children. Help them really identify how they are feeling. Explain how when we eat, food gets chewed in the mouth, then passed down into the stomach. We need to be thinking about how our stomach feels.
“Just Ask” – 8 years old and older
This game is simple. It involves you just asking. It’s probably better for older kids (say 8 and above). Ask your child how are they feeling. If they say “I’m hungry” ask them to have a drink of water and let it sit for 10 minutes to see if they still feel hungry. Now ask them “Are you feeling a little bit hungry, or a lot hungry?” Ask them to describe how they feel now compared to before they had the water. This should give you a gauge on what they deem hungry to feel like. Talk to them about the different words they could use to help better describe their hunger – eg. peckish etc.
“Visual Guide” – Younger than 8 years old
This is a good game for younger kids (and probably will work for 10-12 y.o. too). It’s designed to provide a visual guide to what hungry etc looks like. Together you build a picture of the different types of hunger they feel. Tell your kids you want to play a game with them to understand more about how food is making them feel. The idea of this game is for you to build a picture of how they feel before and after food. This way you can help them to articulate how they are feeling before you serve them their meals. Before and after eating, you’re going to ask the children to colour in a picture of their tummy to explain how full it is feeling.
This game is best played on the weekend when you have time to dedicate to it, and the children are at home too. With each picture they colour in, ask them to help you label how their tummy is feeling – is it full, is it a little bit hungry (peckish) and so on.
- Start this game before they’ve had breakfast. Get them to colour in their tummy – it should be nearly empty as this is their first meal since going to bed. Label this Before Breakfast
- After breakfast, have them colour in their tummy again. Label this one After Breakfast
- About 1 hour after breakfast, ask them to colour their tummy again. Label this one Breakfast +1 Hour
- Do steps 1-3 for lunch, and dinner. Remembering to label the pictures with the timing and meal (eg. before lunch) and with the label they have given you for how their tummy is feeling.
The idea is to get them used to thinking about how they are feeling before eating and after. Be sure to start checking in with them as they are eating too. Ask them to pause and have a think about how they are feeling. Remember to continue to talk about the different kinds of way food makes us feel (hungry etc) – not just for this one day but ongoing. We need healthy conversations about the connection between how food makes us feel.
Use these pictures to recognise how your child is feeling, and use these labels when talking to them about food. You can then use these pictures to help work out whether they need more or less than you’d normally serve for a meal.
Other important tips
These tips help with digestion and may in turn affect how much we need to eat.
- Eat meals at a table, preferably without a TV in view, and screens/devices put away
- Eat meals together
- Take your time eating, encourage chewing of food properly
If your children are older, you can still play a similar game but get them to write it down on a piece of paper.
You could use this picture of Garfields tummy for a bit of fun or for older children, you could use just an outline picture of the stomach.
A General Rule Of Thumb
If you’re still looking feeling uncomfortable about using your own parent skills with portion sizes, I did find this blog post on the healthy weight week website – it has a guide to portion sizes. This is as good as general rule of thumb as you’ll get. It says this:
“Get the balance right when plating up meals at home with this simple rule of thumb:
- ½ of your plate should be vegetables (think variety and colour!)
- ¼ of your plate should be good-quality carbohydrates – such as potato, wholegrain pasta, brown rice, couscous, quinoa
- ¼ of your plate should be lean protein, like lean meat, poultry, eggs or legumes”
I found this picture on the FitStar website.
Please note, I am not saying this rule of thumb is 100% perfect, but I do think it’s a great place for you to start if you’re feeling uncertain about making choices about portion sizes yourself.
My Approach
I believe that if you eat mainly wholefoods (real foods) at every meal, drink loads of water every day, move your body everyday (even if this is just a 10 minute walk and stretch), and get a good nights sleep most nights, then you are nourishing your body in the right ways. Listening to how your body feels after you eat, drink, move and sleep is a really important part of the equation of your health.
My approach for our kids is similar – serve them wholefoods, give them plenty of water to drink, get them to move their body daily, have a routine which allows them to get at least 10-12 hours sleep a night, and educate them to listen to their bodies.
I don’t spend a lot of time focussing on portion sizes. Instead I focus on just serving loads of vegetables and a good quality protein source. Grains are not a big part of the way we eat, because we find our bodies work better without all the pasta, breads, and rice.
I have made it my standard practice to get some vegetables in every meal of the day, including breakfast and to offer water for drinks. If we want fizz once or twice a week, we have soda water – either plain, or with slices of lemon for some flavour. I ensure we eat loads of greens and other different colours of vegetables (think of the rainbow). We have a select few packets I keep in the pantry as fall backs – these are packets I have consciously chosen after looking at the ingredients. Anything I don’t want us eating, I simply do not have it in the house. Temptation is gone.
And I always talk to the children about how we have this one body for life, and we have to take care of it – it really doesn’t matter what someone else is eating or how they are moving, because that’s their body, what matters is how we are treating our own individual body.
If my kids eat a plate full of veggies and some protein and they say they are still hungry, then I am OK with loading them up with more real foods. Equally if they say they have had enough or they’re not hungry, then I ask them to have one more piece of broccoli (or whatever veg is left on their plate) and that’s it. They now know their bodies well enough. I trust their judgement. After all, when they leave home, what I have taught them about food and their judgement is what they will have.
This is how I keep it simple. No measuring, no counting, no arguing. Simple.
Does it mean I get it right all the time in terms of proper dietary guidelines? Probably not, but I am ok with that. I enjoy cooking, I enjoy eating and my kids do too. I believe we’re teaching them a healthy approach to food.
I believe the answer to portion sizes is simple – eat mainly wholefoods, minimise processed foods, drink loads of water, get a good night’s sleep most nights, move your body everyday. And learn to understand how our body is feeling.
If you take processed foods and some screen time out of the equation, portion sizes become less of an issue.
Sources
https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/food-essentials/five-food-groups
https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/food-essentials/how-much-do-we-need-each-day/what-serve
http://www.goodfood.com.au/eat-out/news/how-australia-eats-the-ultimate-pie-chart-20131101-2wstm
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4364.0.55.001~2014-15~Main%20Features~Daily%20intake%20of%20fruit%20and%20vegetables~28
http://www.goodfood.com.au/eat-out/news/average-australian-eats-fast-food-nearly-every-week-20140311-34k15
https://www.choice.com.au/health-and-body/diet-and-fitness/weight-loss/articles/increasing-portion-sizes
https://web.archive.org/web/20180624065856/https://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/unmanaged_files/portion_size_me_JADA_2007.pdf
http://www.healthyfoodguide.com.au/articles/2009/august/abc-kids-nutrition