Why It’s Good to Measure Portions

I’m eating a cup of whole-grain breakfast cereal many mornings with low-fat milk and a banana. This morning I couldn’t find the measuring cup and just poured directly into the bowl, measuring with my eye. Seemed like a cup to me. Then I spotted the measuring cup and poured the bowl contents into it. 1-1/4 cups. 25% off. Picture that across a lot of your foods—disaster.

We asked readers, via Facebook and Twitter, what the hardest food for them to portion was, and here are the results:

Ice Cream: 25%Chips: 22%Fries: 14%Pasta: 8%Mashed Potatoes: 8%Chocolate: 5%Cookies: 5%Rice: 5%Nuts: 5%Popcorn: 3%

Which foods are hardest for you to portion? Comment here, email Scott_Mowbray@timeinc.com, and tweet @ScottMowb or @Cooking_Light using #SocialDiet.