It’s three months in to the start of the New Year, so you should have already started working on the “New You” right? Time to drop some bad habits and replace them with healthy habits, start exercising, be nicer, work less, holiday more……. The list goes on, we get it. So to help you out and give you a better understanding of how many calories is in a portion of food and what that portion really looks like, we give you this! Now it has been doing the rounds on Facebook so many of you may have seen it before, so we would like to ask you to ACTUALLY have a proper look this time around. And for those who haven’t seen this pictogram series before, now is your chance. All we ask is for you to take the time to read through (or look through) properly and really ingest the quantity of food that makes up 200 calories. You may be surprised by how much or how little it takes to consume 200 calories. Once you have browsed through the series, relate it back to your current eating habits and you will realise how easy it is these days to over eat and consume far more calories than is needed on a daily basis. Here is a reminder of the current Australian Food Guidelines for men and women: Men need to consume between 2,500 calories and 3,000 calories each day depending on how active they are and Women need to consume between 1,800 calories and 2,200 calories each day depending on how active they are. We all should be consuming at least 5 different vegetables and 2 different fruits each day to maximize nutrient consumption (we know sometimes this is easier said than done).
Remember, some foods have significantly more Calories than others. When you consider that an entire plate of broccoli contains the same number of Calories as a small spoonful of peanut butter, you might think twice the next time you decide what to eat. In other words, you have a fixed amount of Calories to “spend” each day; based on the following pictures, which would you eat?
