Early this year new dietary guidelines (Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005) were released (www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines). Published jointly by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), dietary guidelines are released every five years to ensure that Americans eat a balanced diet with the right amounts of: vegetables, fruits, grains, oils, milk and meats/beans. Requirements for each of the major food categories are operationalized by servings per day necessary for health at different levels of caloric intake.

Because many Americans do not think about the food they consume in terms of servings, the guidelines define a serving using an equivalent measure, a half-cup. A portion on the other hand is not defined by an equivalent measure but rather by that which a person elects to serve/eat of a particular food. For example, when food is passed around a dinner table as families do, portions taken of particular foods vary from person to person, according to factors, such as hunger, likes and dislikes and/or if s/he is subscribing to or trying to adhere to a particular dietary regimen. Some will take more and some less of each food. The number of servings, whether it is less or more of something, is not usually considered nor is there an awareness of if a person is meeting the servings per day recommended by current dietary guidelines.

A related issue and one that is cause for concern is that, over the past 20 years, the portions offered by the restaurant and fast food industries have increased markedly. This is illustrated by the following examples from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes Obesity Education Initiative (www.nhlbi.nih.gov).