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Explore the USDA Food Pyramid

By , About.com Guide

Updated June 03, 2009

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Portion Distortion

iStockphoto.com

This hamburger club sandwich with french fries is an example of portions that are too large.

Photo © Greg Nicholas
In order to eat a healthy diet, you need to understand how big a serving really is. For instance, this tasty looking hamburger club sandwich with a large side of fries looks like an average meal. However, there is enough ground beef to qualify as at least two servings, plus one serving of bacon. The lettuce and tomatoes are great, but the bread counts as three servings. One serving of potatoes should equal about one half a cup, so there are about four servings of a starchy vegetable there.

According to the USDA, one serving of meat is equal to two or three ounces, which is about the size of a deck of cards. The USDA Food Pyramid suggests two or three servings of meat per day. This meal would satisfy that requirement all alone. The potatoes, lettuce, and tomato would total about five servings of vegetables and the USDA Food Pyramid suggests a total of three to five per day. Again this meal covers all the servings of vegetables you should have for one day.

It is also important to note that a meal like this may have up to 1500 calories. Unless you are very active, that would be way too many calories for one meal.

Next, let's look at a similar meal, but with better portions.

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