Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to commit hours or weeks to researching nutrition, and you don’t have to cut out “bad foods”. With a basic understanding of a few key nutritional concepts, you can change your habits with minimal effort.
If your goal is to lose fat or weight, check out our Ageless Fat Loss Program — it’s designed to help you form healthy eating habits based on tried-and-true calorie budgeting.
The meal guide in our Vacation Flex program offers a more self-guided approach, and teaches you how to break down food types into new categories that will allow you to mix and match essential food groups to create a delicious, healthy meal, without having to count calories.
In that guide, we use the word “serving” in the Food Mapping section.
Typically, the word “serving” simply refers to a subjective quantity of food suitable for being served to one person.
So then, what is a serving size, really?
According to the Canadian Government, a serving size is not necessarily the suggested quantity of food you should eat, but a common household measure that is typically served to a person based on their age and gender.
Common household measures include:
a fraction of a food such as 1/4 pizza (90 g)
number of pieces such as 4 crackers (20 g)
cups, teaspoons or tablespoons (3/4 cup of yogurt [175 g] or 1 tablespoon of peanut butter [15 g])
When written on a package, a serving size serves to tell you the quantity of food used to calculate the numbers in its nutrition facts table.
By checking a packaged product's serving size, you can:
understand what nutrients are in it, and how many
compare nutritional information between similar food products
determine your own portion of serving amounts that you actually need
But what if it’s not in a package?
How to use your hand to estimate a serving size
We found a great guide that teaches you how to use your hand to estimate Canada's Food Guide serving sizes and compare them to the food portions you eat.
Here's an approximation of what the Canada Food Guide servings look like using an average adult sized hand:
Vegetables and Fruit
Fresh, frozen or canned vegetables: 1/2 cup (125 mL) = 1/2 fist
Fresh, frozen or canned fruit: 1/2 cup (125 mL) = 1/2 fist
Leafy vegetables: 1cup (250 mL) = 1 fist
Dried fruit: 1/4 cup (60 mL) = Cupped hand
Whole fruit: 1 fruit = 1 fist
100% fruit juice: 1/2 cup (125 mL) = 1/2 fist
Canada's Food Guide recommends 7 to 10 servings of Vegetables and Fruit a day to an average adult. *These would fall under both high density and low density carbs in our Vacation Flex Meal Guide.
Grain Products:
Bread = 1 slice = Size of hand
Pasta 1/2 cup (125 mL) = 1/2 fist
Bagel: half a small bagel = 1 whole hand
Rice: 1/2 cup (125 mL) = 1/2 fist
Cold Cereal: 30g = 1 fist
Canada's Food Guide recommends 6 to 8 servings of Grain Products a day depending on your age and gender. *These would fall under high density carbs in our Vacation Flex Meal Guide.
Milk and Alternatives:
Milk or fortified soy beverage: 1 cup (250 mL ) = 1 fist
Yogurt: 3/4 cup ( 175 mL ) = 1 fist
Cheese: 1⁄21 oz ( 50 g ) = 2 thumbs
Canada's Food Guide recommends 2 to 3 servings of Milk and Alternatives a day to an average adult. *These would fall under both proteins and fats in our Vacation Flex Meal Guide.
Meat and and Alternatives:
Meat and Poultry: 21⁄2 oz (75g)= Palm of hand
Nuts and seeds: 1/4 cup (60 mL)= Cupped hand
Fish: 1⁄22 oz (75g)= Palm of hand
Peanut butter: 2 tbsp (30 mL)= 2 thumbs
Legumes: 3/4 cup (175 mL)= 1 fist
Canada's Food Guide recommends 2 to 3 servings of Meat and and Alternatives a day to an average adult. *These would fall under both proteins and fats in our Vacation Flex Meal Guide.
Fats:
Margarine or butter: 1 tsp (5mL) = 1 thumb tip
Oil: 1 tsp (5mL) = 1 thumb tip
Mayonnaise: 1 tsp (5mL) = 1 thumb tip
Canada's Food Guide recommends 2 to 3 tbsp of unsaturated fat each day to an average adult, and limiting the total amount of fat you eat. *These would fall under fats in our Vacation Flex Meal Guide.
Check out our Vacation Flex Meal Guide for more ideas on how to build your own perfect meal plan without having to count calories.
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