FoodTV Promotes Prudent Portions

Released on: October 20, 2009, 4:48 am
Author: FoodTV
Industry: Food & Beverage

With obesity rates rising, it is more important than ever that people eat healthily and take enough exercise.

That is why FoodTV provide hundreds of simple and nutritious recipes, as well as demonstration videos to view online.

However, when you begin to experiment and create your own dishes you shouldn't forget the advice gained from FoodTV.

Every meal should include a variety of vegetables, carbohydrates and protein. You should also follow these tips for simple portion control:

Pasta
When cooking dried spaghetti, you should prepare a small handful for each person. Obviously this won't work with some of the numerous varieties of pasta - a handful of penne pasta is not the same as a handful of tagliatelle.

Instead, a 230 gram serving of pasta is roughly the same size as a tennis ball. To make your pasta dishes even healthier, choose the wholegrain option.

Meat and fish
Both meat and fish are great sources of protein. However, nutritionists recommend you limit your intake of red meat, such as beef or lamb.

An average serving of meat should be about the same size as a deck of cards or a chequebook. A serving of fish - which is high in Omega 3 - should be about the same.

Vegetables
Whenever possible you should steam vegetables, as this means they will retain more of their nutrients. A 115 gram serving of cooked vegetables should be around the same size as an orange.

Dried fruit
While dried fruit will last much longer than fresh, it has around five times the calories by weight. To make sure you don't overindulge, you should remember that a single serving of dried fruits should be about the same size as an egg or a golf ball.

Salad dressing
There is no need to add spoonfuls of dressing to add life to a salad. Instead, a drizzle of about five grams (roughly the size of your thumbnail) should be sufficient.

Following this simple advice can reduce your waistline and start you on the way to a healthier, happier lifestyle.

ABOUT - FoodTV provides hundreds of hours of online food-related videos, as well as easy recipes, budget cooking and drinks for all ages. Users can share recipes through the FoodTV community.

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