Catherine Saxelby's Foodwatch | Standard food serves and portion sizes

Standard food serves and portion sizes

What is a standard serve?  What's the right portion? When nutritionists talk about a serve of vegetables, exactly how much do they mean?  Is it a cup or a couple of spoonfuls? What about rice and pasta? Is one cup ok or too much? Check out this quick list of standard serves so you know how much is meant.

 

Vegetables

One serve is around 75g:

• ½ cup cooked vegetables (broccoli, beans, peas etc)
• 1 tomato
• 1 cup salad leaves (50-60g)

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Fruit

One serve is around 150g in weight and means:

• 1 medium apple, banana, orange or pear
• 2 plums, apricots or kiwifruit
• 1 cup fruit salad or canned fruit
• 1-2 tablespoons sultanas
• 4 dried apricot halves
• ½ cup (125ml) 100% fruit juice, unsweetened

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Legumes

One serve is:

• ½ cup (75g) cooked or canned beans or lentils
• 1 small can (100g) baked beans - about half a cup, see picture at right

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Lean meat, fish, chicken or eggs

One serve is:

• 125g (4 oz) meat (cooked) or 150g (5 oz) meat (raw weight)
  eg 2 slices roast meat, 2 medium chops, 1 small steak, 3/4 cup mince - equivalent roughly to the size of the palm of your hand - see picture at right
• 150g (5 oz) fish or seafood (cooked) or 180g (6 oz) fish or seafood (raw weight)
  eg 1 large fish fillet (equivalent to the size of the whole of your hand) or 120 g can tuna or salmon
• 125g (4 oz) chicken (cooked) e.g. 1 small chicken breast, 2-3 drumsticks
• 2 eggs

Note: 150 g (5 oz) raw weight becomes around 125 g (4 oz) when cooked.
            175 g (6 oz) raw weight trims down to 150 g (5 oz).

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Dairy

One serve is:

• 1 cup (250 ml) milk, full-fat, low-fat or skim
• 1 tub (200g) yoghurt, full-fat, low-fat or skim
• 2 slices (40g) cheese

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Nuts and seeds

One serve is:

• ½ cup (30g) almonds, walnuts, cashews, macadamias, pecans, peanuts
• 2 tablespoons (50g) peanut butter or tahini

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Grains and cereals, ideally whole grain

One serve is:

• 1 thick slice bread (35g)
• ½ bread roll
• ¼ cup (90g) cooked rice
• ¼ cup (90g) cooked pasta or noodles
• ¾ cup (30-40g) breakfast cereal flakes or pops
• ½ cup cooked porridge
• ¼ cup muesli

Note: I prefer ONE slice of bread or 30g of cereal as ONE serve. The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating lists a serve as TWO slices. So you'll find a different number of bread/cereal serves listed by each of us. 

 

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Fats and oils

One serve provides around 20g of fat:

• 1 tablespoon (20g) of any oil  eg olive, sunflower, canola, peanut
• 1½ tablespoons margarine or butter, preferably unsalted or low-salt
• 2 tablespoons (40g) light margarine (also called low-fat spread)
• ½ avocado

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Related information

Download "Portion caution", our free colour fact sheet showing how portion sizes have gradually increased over the past 10 years and how these are a major contributor to the obesity problem.

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Check out Catherine's article "Portion distortion" which compares 7 everyday foods wtih their standard serve sizes.  Are you overdoing the size of your juice, muffin, steak, pasta with sauce, rice, fruit loaf or wine? Healthy as they are, they're still kilojoules. See at a glance and compare.

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