November 7, 2002

Prairie Fare: Can You Spot a Serving Size?

By Julie Garden-Robinson, Food and Nutrition Specialist
NDSU Extension Service

Understanding serving sizes can be a little tricky. Serving sizes differ from portion sizes. A serving is an amount of food recommended, while a portion is the amount of food actually eaten.

Try this quiz based on serving sizes from the Food Guide Pyramid:

1. Which is a serving of cooked vegetables?

1. 1/4 cup
2. 1/2 cup
3. 3/4 cup
4. 1 cup

2. Which is a serving size of cooked pasta or rice?

1. 1/4 cup
2. 1/2 cup
3. 3/4 cup
4. 1 cup

3. Which is a serving of cooked lean meat, poultry or fish?

1. 1 oz.
2. 3 oz.
3. 5 oz.
4. 7 oz.

4. Which is a serving of bread?

1. 1/2 slice bread
2. 1 slice bread
3. 1 1/2 slices bread
4. 2 slices bread

5. Which is a serving of natural/unprocessed cheese?

1. 1 oz.
2. 1 1/2 oz
3. 2 oz
4. 2 1/2 oz

All the answers are "b." If you missed some, don’t feel bad. In a national survey conducted by the American Dietetic Association, most Americans overestimated serving sizes. For cooked pasta, vegetables and meat, less than half of the respondents answered correctly.

About 68 percent overestimated the serving size for cooked vegetables (1/2 cup), 55 percent overestimated the serving size for cooked pasta (1/2 cup) and 54 percent overestimated the serving size for cooked meat (about 3 ounces).

Since most people don’t carry kitchen measuring tools with them to the table to portion their food, there are a few ways to eyeball serving sizes. A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, a half-cup of cooked rice, pasta or cooked vegetables is about the size of a tennis ball cut in half, and one and a half ounces of cheese is about the size of four stacked dice.

Here’s an easy recipe from Nabisco. Remember a serving is 1/24 of the recipe.

Peanut Butter Raisin Bars

1/4 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 c. corn syrup
1/4 c. chunky peanut butter
2 c. Spoon Size Shredded Wheat, coarsely crushed
3/4 c. seedless raisins

In large saucepan, over medium heat, stir together brown sugar and corn syrup until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm. Remove from heat; blend in peanut butter. Stir in cereal and raisins until well coated. Press into lightly greased 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking pan. Cool until firm. Cut into 24 bars. Store in air-tight container.

Makes 24 servings. Each serving contains 63 calories, 1 gram fat and 1 gram dietary fiber.

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Source: Julie Garden-Robinson, (701) 231-7187, jgardenr@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu