Without doing a web search or heading to the kitchen, what is the single-serving size listed on the nutrion label for a package of:
Chicken
–breast (skinless, boneless) _____ oz.
–thighs (skinless, boneless) _____ oz.
Beef _____ oz.
Pork _____ oz.
Salmon (fresh) _____ oz.
Tuna (fresh) _____ oz.
If you’re someone who already pays attention to the portion sizes of what you eat, this question is easy. If you’re not, you might be surprised to find out that the answer for each item above is the same: four ounces. Not eight. Not sixteen.
Four.
If you’re not sure what four ounces looks like, grab any one-pound package of meat out of your freezer (or flip one over next time you’re shopping), and visualize that in four equal portions. Not much, is it? Or at least not much compared to what most Americans typically eat for dinner, especially in a restaurant. The last time you went out for a steak dinner, did you get a four-ounce cut? Of course not, because it doesn’t exist. The smallest steak on a typical menu is a filet mignon, which might be six ounces but is often eight.
I’m not advocating that every protein meal you eat be exactly four ounces, or that however many grams of protein in a single serving (typically 20-25g) is the maximum you should consume at any one time. Individual needs and goals vary, of course. In fact, I’m willing to bet a lot of you will realize that your protein intake is too low.
It goes without saying that the habit of reading nutrition labels and knowing your portion sizes is a good idea for any food, but it’s especially important with sugar and carbohydrates. If you’re restricting carbs as part of a fat-loss plan, you’ll probably find the same situation there as with proteins. A typical ramen package lists the carbs per serving at around 27 grams. That ain’t much, right? If you’re trying to stay under 50g/day, that fits with room to spare. Until you note that the number of servings per package is listed as 2.
Who the hell eats half a ramen noodle?
A word about ingredients lists – ingredients are listed in order of appearance, so to speak, which means the higher on the list an ingredient is, the higher the amount of that ingredient. Remember this the next time you look at a jar of “Olive Oil Mayonnaise.” Often the first ingredient is soybean or canola, with olive oil somewhere down the list. Thich means they simply added some (undisclosed) amount of olive oil to the mix and called it a “healthy alternative.”
Last but not least: “net carbs.” Last I checked, the jury was still out on this, but If it sounds too good to be true, well, you know… How “net carbs” is justified is by how many carbs are considered insoluble fiber. That number is subtracted from the total, yielding the “net carbs” number. It looks good on paper, but the body is not a piece of paper, so I would err on the side of caution. Personally, I’m not convinced that one super-soft flour tortilla is going to provide more dietary fiber than a typical fiber supplement.
Thanks for reading,
Dan
Get your free eBook.
Get Online Coaching.
