In this Nutrition Play of the Day from the Ripken Playbook, you will learn that while eating healthy foods is certainly an important part of maintaining good nutrition, so is being aware of your food portions. Food portions are specific, recommended amounts of each food group from the My Plate graphic in our Healthy Choices, Healthy Children – Nutrition edition you should consume per serving, per day. To help you better understand portion sizes, you can use everyday items in your house to help keep your plate balanced!
Portion Scavenger Hunt
You may be wondering, how am I supposed to measure my food portions? With a ruler? Not quite. This portion scavenger hunt will teach you how to measure your food portions with everyday items around your house!
Now, search for the following items:
- CD/DVD
- Baseball or computer mouse
- Tennis ball
- Four dice
- Deck of cards
Once you find these items, you will use them to measure your food portions. Make sure you “eyeball” these measurements -- do not touch your food directly to the objects.
Correct Portions
Grains = CD/DVD
- One serving of grains equals the size of a CD/DVD. It is recommended you eat six servings of grains per day.
Vegetables = baseball or computer mouse
- One serving of vegetables is the size of a baseball or computer mouse. It is recommended you eat 2 to 2.5 servings of vegetables per day.
Fruit = tennis ball
- One serving of fruit is the size of a tennis ball. It is recommended you eat 1.5 to 2 servings of fruit per day.
Dairy = four dice or a tennis ball
- One serving of dairy is the size of about four dice or a tennis ball. It is recommended you eat three servings of dairy per day.
Protein = half a deck of cards
- One serving of protein is about the size of half a deck of cards. It is recommended you eat 5 to 5.5 servings of protein per day.
Now, try creating your next healthy meal following these portion guidelines. Share a picture of your healthy meal with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.