Portions by proportions of your body are a good rule of thumb.

How much?

My new students, regardless of age or cooking experience, begin with a quick reference to measurements as they pertain to the size of the hand. Their hand to be specific. They made measuring cups and spoons long after women had been cooking and men had been flipping meat over an open fire, and based the measurements on women’s hands.

Something else to know and consider: In the U.S. all recipes and reference to amounts are in pounds and ounces EXCEPT nutritional information on packaging, these are in Imperial measurements, grams and millimeters. Until I bought a scale, I didn’t fully comprehend the amount of salt and sugar (or anything else for that matter) listed in the nutritional information on packages or in the medical community guidelines.

Here is a chart to give a better understanding to the term: “size matters” as it pertains to servings of good health.

For Nutritional Servings per day:

Daily Needs Chart

SERVING SIZE OF COMMON FOODSServing Size: 1 CUP
Raw Vegetables, Piece of Fruit, Cereal
(Woman’s fist or Baseball) 

 

Serving Size: ½ Cup

Raw Cut Fruit, Cooked Vegetables, Grain,

Snack

(Rounded Handful or a Light Bulb)

 

Serving Size: ¼ Cup

Nut Butter, Granola, Nuts, Dried Fruit

(A Golf Ball or your thumb and pointer finger forming a circle)

 

Serving Size: 3 Ounces

Cooked Meat, Poultry, Fish, Protein

(A computer Mouse or the print your palm would make if U were hitting the computer screen, for example)

 

Serving Size: 2 Tablespoons

Cheese, Non-Dairy Cheese

(The size of Ur Thumb)

 

Serving Size: 1 Tablespoon

Mayonnaise, Non-Dairy Butter

(The size of Ur Thumb Tip)

 

Daily serving of salt: ⅔ teaspoon

Basic Recommendation: 2,000 mg.

Heart Association says 1500 mg.

1 Teaspoon is 2,300 milligrams

(Baby finger tip for the day)

 

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