{"id":80317,"date":"2012-10-04T10:26:37","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T15:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=80317"},"modified":"2012-10-04T10:38:11","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T15:38:11","slug":"portion-size-reality-check-learn-how-to-eat-healthy-starches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/portion-size-reality-check-learn-how-to-eat-healthy-starches\/","title":{"rendered":"Portion Size Reality Check: Learn How to Eat Healthy Starches"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., TheBestLife.com lead nutritionist<\/em><\/p>\n

A little calorie denial is OK, but if your denial\u2019s deep, sooner or later you\u2019ll pay the price on the scale. My recommendation: Take a few weeks to measure your food. Once you get portions under control<\/a><\/strong>, you\u2019ll automatically cut back on calories. Rolling your eyes already? I know, so many people can\u2019t stand the idea of measuring, but I\u2019m going to make it a little easier by asking you to track just one type of food for a week.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sure, you could measure and weigh everything that crosses your lips, but most of us aren\u2019t getting fat off of fruit, vegetables, fat-free milk, fish and other healthy, low-calorie foods. It\u2019s bread, potatoes and other starchy foods, as well as fried foods, sugary beverages, sweets, salty snacks, and too much butter, oil, mayo and other fats that get us all into trouble.<\/p>\n

This week, I\u2019m going to ask you to focus on one major waistline saboteur: starches. Your goal is to cut way back on white bread, white rice and other refined grain products and enjoy healthy starches<\/a><\/strong> like whole grains and sweet potatoes in moderation. (They\u2019re more nutritious and make you feel fuller than refined grains.) For some people, the \u201cin moderation<\/a><\/strong>\u201d part can be tricky. That\u2019s why you\u2019ll get so much out of measuring and tracking servings this week; pretty soon you can put away the measuring cups and just eyeball your plate. In just a few weeks, you\u2019ll emerge a portion pro, and you\u2019ll love the results on the scale.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Step 1<\/strong>: Figure out how many daily servings of starches you can get away with. If you\u2019re eating 1,600 to 1,800 daily calories, you get five per day; on 1,800 to 2,100 daily calories, you get six or seven; and if you\u2019re eating more than 2,100 calories per day, you get eight or more servings.<\/p>\n

Step 2<\/strong>: Study up on what a serving size looks like using the cheat sheet below (for a visual on some of these, go to Your Portion Cheat Sheet<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

A serving is 80 calories and looks like:<\/p>\n