Quick Guide to Healthy Eating

How many Serves you should be eating daily and Serving Sizes

We are constantly hearing about the fact that we are a nation with an expanding waistline and that we need to be more careful about what we eat.

But when we are constantly being told what not to eat, it is sometimes hard to know what or how much we need to consume to make sure that we have enough energy for the day and to get the nutrients we need.

The table below from an Australian Government Health eating pamphlet and it specifies how many serves you should be consuming daily based on your sex and age. If you are smaller or live a less active lifestyle you should aim for the smaller number in each boxes which relates to you, if you are larger or more active you should be aiming for the larger figures.

How many serves of each food type we should be aiming for daily. Source: pg 10 Food for Health, Dietry Guidelines for Australians, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. ISBN 1864961171 (print) 1864962240 (online)

From the table above it does seem like we need to eat heaps, therefore are you confused about what a serve is?

Well so am I so I had a look at what they meant by one serve and here are some examples of what one serve is from each of the categories in the above table:

Cereals

• 2 slices of bread or 1 medium bread roll
• 1 cup cooked rice, pasta, noodles
• 1 cup porridge
• or 1/2 cup muesli.

Vegetables and Legumes

• 75 g or 1/2 cup cooked vegetables, cooked dried beans, peas or lentils
• 1 cup salad vegetables

Fruit

• 1 medium piece, eg apple, banana, orange, pear
• 2 small pieces, eg apricots, kiwi fruit, plums
• 1 cup diced pieces or canned fruit
• dried fruit, eg 4 dried apricot halves,
• 1 1/2tablespoons sultanas.

Dairy

• 250 mL (one cup) fresh, long-life or reconstituted dried milk
• 40 g (2 slices) cheese
• 200g yoghurt

Meat, Fish, Poultry, Nuts and Legumes

• 1 serve meat is a portion which is equal to the palm of your hand
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup cooked (dried) beans, lentils, chick peas, split peas or canned beans
• 80–120 g cooked fish fillet

Treat's or 'Extra's'

• 1 (40 g) doughnut
• 4 (35 g) plain sweet biscuits
• 1 slice (40 g) plain cake
• 25 g chocolate
• 200 mL wine (2 standard drinks)
• 375 mL soft drink
• 50g icecream.

Source: The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, 1998, ISBN 0 642 272573

Are you worried about your weight level?
Are you getting the nutrition and energy from food that you should be getting daily?