Tips to Pick The Right Portion Size

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Why am I holding this giant tortilla in front of my face? Stick around and find out on Healthy Cooking with Chef Lizzie.

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Hi. I'm Chef Lizzie, here to talk about serving sizes, which just means how much food is the right amount of food to eat. You see, back when our parents were kids-- I know. Hard to believe, right? But back then, foods were a little different. For example, this was the size of a typical tortilla. But nowadays, this is the size we usually see.

Supersized food is all around us. Unlike our parents, it's what we've grown up with. So it's easy to eat more food than our bodies really need. And that isn't always healthy. But I've got some ways to help. So let's get started.

Which one of these cheeseburgers looks like the ones you normally see? This one, right? But this smaller one is actually the right size for a single healthy serving. The food we eat is basically energy. And if we eat more food than our bodies need, we either store that energy as fat or we need to burn it off doing stuff like playing basketball or even taking a dog for a walk. And let me tell you, the difference between this burger and this burger is a pretty long walk.

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And speaking of fat, another good reason to pay attention at serving sizes is because some foods have more fat in them than it's healthy for us to eat. And you might not even know it's there. Can you imagine eating this? This is 1 pound of fat. Nobody wants to eat this.

But if you eat a cheeseburger like this every day for just two weeks, you'll be eating about this much fat. And if you eat one a day for two months, you would eat about this much fat. Fun to play with, but pretty gross to eat. That's why portion sizes are important.

So what can you do? Well, here's one way to make sure that you're eating the right amount of food. Divide your plate into four parts-- fruits; veggies; lean meats; and whole grains, like rice or bread; with some dairy on the side. If your plate looks like this, you're in great shape. If not, you could be getting too much of one type of food. Or it could be too easy to keep eating, and you might not even realize it.

But trust me, your body knows. So take care of it by giving it the right amount of energy. That way, you'll have more energy too.

And come back for more food tips and ideas on Healthy Cooking with Chef Lizzie. Thanks for watching.