KT For Good: Know your portion sizes to conserve food

The 13th day of our campaign deconstructs your plate. Do you pile food on your plate before eating? Here is how you need to serve food.

Food waste is a huge issue piling up on the world's dinner plate. However, filling trolleys, piling plates, and surrendering food to the trash cans is continuing to create a global food wastage epidemic.
A common sight at lavish buffet spreads, experts say of the biggest reasons for food waste in the country is 'not managing portion sizes'.
Lubna Dhalani, a dietician with Aster Clinic in Bur Dubai, said: "Preference of flavours varies from a person's individual choice. However, very strong flavours tend to satiate us faster." 
In this case, the uneaten food ends up in the bin. Annual food waste is estimated at 427kg per person in Saudi Arabia and 197kg per person in the UAE.
Dhalani added: "Food is recommended in lesser quantities. However, there are people eating the same kind of foods over decades and still not bored over, but this is more of emotional quotient."
Nadine Tayara, a licensed dietician, master NLP coach, mBIT coach and food and beverages expert, and the brains behind UAE- based nutrition consultancy KeepEATreal said people need to keep a tab into their hunger.
"Listen to your physical hunger cues for making informed decisions as to when and how much to eat, without necessarily overeating," she explained.
Chipping in, Dhalani said: "Following nutrition plate is the best way to estimate your food during a meal. Vegetables of various colours should be the major chunk of the meal. Incorporate foods which are not favoured with the ones which you like, to avoid the ones disliked.
"Eat the ones which you don't prefer first than the ones which you prefer. Also, different cooking methods can help to blend various foods so that one particular food isn't avoided and wasted. Portion control estimation tools are also helpful depending on one's requirements," she added.
Ways to serve food
Tayara said there are several ways to measure portions without really counting calories or even using measuring cups and spoons.
"The common ones are either using the Plate Method or the Hand Guide Method; both easy and effective tools to use when practising portion control," she explained.
Tayara added: "For the Plate Method, it is simple, by diving your plate in three-parts - whereby one-fourth is filled with lean protein or plant-based proteins." The other one fourth is filled with whole-grain starches such as quinoa, brown rice, buckwheat, whole-wheat pasta and the remaining half plate to be filled with an assortment of colourful non-starchy vegetables from broccoli, bell peppers, eggplant, zucchini etc.
Healthy fats such as avocado slices, olive oil etc. can be extra add-ons, said Tayara.
For the Hand Method, it is also, a simple tool to help measure your food servings e.g. size of palm for a lean protein option of chicken, meat or fish, a closed fist for vegetables or mixed salad, and a cupped hand or clenched fist for a portion of whole-grain carbs. The food expert said the thumb is usually almost the size of a tablespoon. Another way is to simply use smaller utensils and dinnerware when eating.
dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

• KT For Good