Tag Archives: servings

Food Companies are Sneaky and Making Us Fat and We Didn’t Even See It Coming!

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A big problem for many people who have to lose weight or want to gain control over their diet, is that they are addicted to sugar and many don’t even know it!  Sugar is hidden in many foods.  It is in your cereal, fruit drinks, almond milk, protein bars and drinks, yogurt and other items that you thought were “healthy.”  Unless you read labels and look at the grams of sugar in EVERY serving in every item, you may have no idea about what you are eating in sugar!  You just eat and you get sucked into the sugar roller coaster.

SugarRollerCoaster

There are also a lot of different names for sugar, so you might think you aren’t eating it, but you are!

different-names-for-sugar

You need to start looking at labels.

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If you eat something and it says that there are two servings in it, but you ate the WHOLE thing, then the nutrient content on the label is DOUBLED because you ate the two servings, but it looked like one serving when you ate it.  Labels can be designed to mislead you into buying the product–as you THINK it is healthy, but it actually wasn’t.

sugar cravings

How can you get over sugar cravings so you won’t keep wanting to eat it?  Your brain is going to tell you to eat it because it liked the effect that the first use had on it.  Sugar is very addictive.  So, go out and get things to munch on that have no to low sugar, and munch on them when you get the cravings:

  • almonds and other nuts or seeds
  • whole fruits (small serving)
  • gluten-free crackers and cheese  (watch the number of crackers–high in carbs)
  • low-sugar protein bars (Try a brand like Quest which contains minimal natural sweeteners)
  • Carb-Smart ice cream bar
  • low-sugar yogurt (Greek is good!)
  • low-sugar chocolate (even Trader Joe’s has some at the check out line)
  • nice hot cup of coffee or tea
  • low sugar hot chocolate
  • go exercise or call a friend

Portion Control Is Key For Losing Weight and Keeping it OFF!

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You can’t just diet and lose weight. The larger the portion, the more calories for your body to burn off. Here are some suggestions that can help you better portion your food.

1: Use visual aids for common food serving sizes (example)

  • Meat, fish, or poultry = 3 ounces = deck of cards / iPhone (lowest in carbs)
  • Pasta, rice, potatoes = one cup = baseball (keep in mind that these are HIGH in carbs)
  • potato, yam = one unit = computer mouse (again, HIGH in carbs)
  • Nuts = 1/4 cup = golf ball (watch the carbs!)
  • Salad dressing or olive oil = 2 Tbsp = shot glass
  • Peanut butter = 2 Tbsp = shot glass (about 8g of carbs)
  • Ice cream = half cup = half baseball (high in sugar)
  • Cheese = 2 ounces = 2 fingers (stick with low carb)
  • handproteincardsproteinpasta_serving2serving

2: Read the serving size information on the Nutrition Facts on the package

Processed foods have a nutrition facts label and the first thing it shows is the serving size.  All the calorie and nutrient information that follows is calculated per serving. But sometimes the serving size is tiny compared to what people really eat.

For example, cereals usually list the serving as half a cup (one ounce). Even KIDS eat more than that. Read this carefully!

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3: Understand how many servings are in a package
As a follow on to the previous tip, it’s important to know how many servings are in a package.

A small bag of Doritos has about 2.5 servings! (That means two and a half times the calories you were expecting)

A bottle Naked Juice or POM actually has TWO servings of liquid. A serving of juice (or soda, or water) is 1 cup (8 fluid ounces), but these bottles usually provide you with double that amount, 16 ounces. (Share with a friend, or better yet, drink water!)

4: When eating out, ask for the small or kids sized portions

Restaurant and fast food meals have massively increased in the last 30 years.

A 280 calorie Caesar salad in 1985 is now over 700 calories! (The kid’s meals are actually the size of what was an adult meal 30 years ago!)

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5: Never eat out of the bag or box

If you bought a family size bag of pretzels, or a gallon tub of ice cream, the worst possible thing to do is eat straight out of the package and especially in front of the TV or computer–or at your desk. It will cause mindless eating!

6: Put ONE SERVING ONLY on your plate in the kitchen and eat in the dining room and USE SMALLER PLATES!

The easiest way to overeat is having the serving dishes on the dining table within arm’s reach. Plate your food in the kitchen then serve it at the table. Don’t eat all over the house, as well.

The plates have increased in size over the years.  If you use a smaller plate for your food, it will feel like you are eating more when you fill it.  Use smaller plates.

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7: Fresh fruits and veggies, eat more of them than the protein and carbs

Put fruit and mostly veggies on half of your plate. The fiber in produce will help you feel full and less hungry.

portion-plate

A fruit by any other name would smell as sweet, but it could still put weight on you!

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You could do 6 protein snacks every 3-4 hours (4 ounces of meat or cup, 2 ounces of low-fat cheese, 4 ounces of low-fat cottage cheese or 1/2 cup yogurt or an egg) and you could eat two small servings of veggies a day (leaving out potatoes and other root veggies and avoiding rice), but still have trouble losing weight.

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Fruit could be an issue.

Some people have fruit as a snack.  Fruit without a protein is not good for a diet.  You should have to servings of fruit a day….but have it with a protein snack.

Have some fruit with some peanut or almond butter, your salad and meat, cheese, nuts, protein bar or shake, in your low-carb Greek Yogurt or cottage cheese.

And you need to pick your fruit wisely, because some fruits are more fattening than others:

Examples:

a whole apple is 25g of carbs vs. an orange at 11g of carbs.

1 cup of strawberries is 13g of carbs vs. 1 cup of blueberries at 20g of carbs.

A medium banana is 27g of carbs vs. 1 cup of papaya at 14g of carbs.

Here is a list to go by:  Net carbs = the Total Carbs- Fiber

Popular Types of Fruit

 Net Carbs(g) Sugar(g) Fiber(g)
Total Carbs(g)

Fruit with Seeds (1 medium piece)
 Apples 15.76 14.34 3.3 19.06
 Grapes 0.41 0.39 – 0.41
 Pears 20.56 16.27 5.1 25.66

Citrus Fruit (1 medium piece)
 Grapefruit 17.88 17.87 2.8 20.68
 Lemons 3.81 1.45 1.6 5.41
 Limes 5.16 1.13 1.9 7.06
 Oranges 12.29 12.25 3.1 15.39
 Tangerines 9.71 8.89 1.5 11.21

Stone Fruit (1 medium piece)
 Apricots 3.19 3.23 0.7 3.89
 Cherries 0.99 0.87 0.1 1.09
 Nectarines 12.05 10.73 2.3 14.35
 Peaches 7.85 8.22 1.5 9.35
 Plums 6.64 6.55 0.9 7.54

Tropical Fruit (1 medium piece)
 Bananas 23.85 14.43 3.1 26.95
 Chinese Gooseberries (Kiwi) 8.84 6.83 2.3 11.14
 Coconut 2.85 2.80 4.0 6.85
 Guavas 4.88 4.91 3.0 7.88
 Litchis 1.49 1.46 0.1 1.59
 Mangos 31.49 30.64 3.7 35.19
 Papayas 24.32 17.94 5.5 29.82
 Pineapples 9.41 7.78 1.2 10.61

Berries (1 cup serving)
 Blackberries 6.24 7.03 7.6 13.84
 Blueberries 17.51 14.44 3.5 21.01
 Cranberries 8.32 4.44 5.1 13.42
 Raspberries 6.69 5.44 8.0 14.69
 Strawberries 8.67 7.08 3.0 11.67

Melon (1 wedge serving)
 Cantaloupe Melon 5.03 5.42 0.6 5.63
 Honeydew Melon 10.36 10.15 1.0 11.36
 Watermelon 20.49 17.73 1.1 21.59