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What is portion control? How do you do it?

beating_my_betes said:
Not to be pedantic, but in this context what do you mean by common sense and "good balanced diet"?
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I'm diabetic, so I try to either avoid excessive carbs, or only eat them in small portions or occasionally. The rest of my diet is a mix of relatively healthy stuff, some limited fruit, berries, etc, lots of above ground veg, some limited below ground starchy veg. I have significantly reduced my intake of junk food and sweet treats, so none or very little of, sweets, cake, biscuits, crisps, etc. I don't drink much anyway, so I consume very little alcohol.
A good mix of proteins and fats, fish, meat, butter, seafood, poultry, etc.

So for me, common sense means being sensible about what I eat bearing in mind my weight and diabetes.
Balanced diet, for me, means the above, lots of variety, lots of the "good" stuff and not so much of the "bad" stuff.

Its really not complicated, (for me) and I do think that sometimes people over think it.
 
pjgtech said:
Its really not complicated, (for me) and I do think that sometimes people over think it.
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I think that is a very sensible comment.

There are times when I find it a bit irritating that there are so many people out there, from individuals to corporations, who try to persuade you otherwise. Sometimes they do it because they have an evangelical zeal for something or other but mostly it is simply to make a few quid.
 
Agree with @Docb in the post immediately above.

CliffH said:
I guess a problem with the phrase "common sense" is that it can mean very different things to different people. Also, what may be "common sense" for (some) non-diabetics isn't necessarily helpful for people with (different types of) diabetes.
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Without delving into realms of philosophy, isn't there an implied my in pjgtech's sentence? With my added it becomes:
'I try to just use my common sense to eat a good balanced diet and not eat too much.'?

As we are all different, my common sense is unlikely to be the same as yours. But that does not matter if we each apply our own common sense to ourselves.
 
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JITR said:
Agree with @Docb in the post immediately above.



Without delving into realms of philosophy, isn't there an implied my in pjgtech's sentence? With my added it becomes:
'I try to just use my common sense to eat a good balanced diet and not eat too much.'?

As we are all different, my common sense is unlikely to be the same as yours. But that does not matter if we each apply our own common sense to ourselves.
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I agree. The usual use of the phrase "common sense" (which I appreciate isn't how pjgtech is using it), though, tends to imply, "Why don't other people think like me?!".
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Since diagnosis I was introduced to the concept of ‘carb counting’ as a mechanism for diabetes management alongside insulin doses. In the early days, the instruction was to base meals on ‘Exchanges’ (10g units of carbs). So I had x exchanges for breakfast, y for a snack, and z for lunch etc etc. (I was on mixed insulin to start with as was common at the time).

I could have whatever I liked, as long as the carbs involved totalled my ‘exchanges’ for that meal / snack. I quickly discovered that some meals (a plate of pasta) were going to be MUCH smaller than I’d eaten before. Others (eg a roast dinner) were going to involve more spuds and parsnips than I would have had. And still others (curry and rice) would be similar to what I’d have dished myself up. Plus there were some sources of carbs that didn’t offer ‘value’ in terms of making me feel full (hello breakfast cereal).

Very quickly I moved away from mixed insulin with fixed meal sizes to multiple daily injections where I could vary meal sizes significantly if I wanted, but I more or less stuck to the targets I’d been introduced to initially (approx 40-60 g of carbs per meal).

My reason for sharing this T1 perspective, was that my diabetes experience has pretty much always been about portion control, weighing food, and estimating carb counts by eye. Plus choosing foods / meals that offer good satiety value, and bulking things up with veggies and proteins.

The portion control has (I suspect) had an inherent calorie-limiting effect. And may partly explain why I’m roughly the same weight now as I was in my 20s when diagnosed.
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IMHO this post pretty much sums up the basics for T2s like me in maintenance.

Not least: Plus choosing foods / meals that offer good satiety value, and bulking things up with veggies and proteins.

No doubt all sorts of variations are possible.
 
pjgtech said:
I'm diabetic, so I try to either avoid excessive carbs, or only eat them in small portions or occasionally. The rest of my diet is a mix of relatively healthy stuff, some limited fruit, berries, etc, lots of above ground veg, some limited below ground starchy veg. I have significantly reduced my intake of junk food and sweet treats, so none or very little of, sweets, cake, biscuits, crisps, etc. I don't drink much anyway, so I consume very little alcohol.
A good mix of proteins and fats, fish, meat, butter, seafood, poultry, etc.

So for me, common sense means being sensible about what I eat bearing in mind my weight and diabetes.
Balanced diet, for me, means the above, lots of variety, lots of the "good" stuff and not so much of the "bad" stuff.

Its really not complicated, (for me) and I do think that sometimes people over think it.
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Your plan seems pretty balanced, and pretty much bang-on in line with government guidelines, Eatwell, ADA Plate etc. I'd say this is common sense, in that it comports with common (scientific) understanding of diet and health.

The reason i asked about context is that it really depends on where you are and with whom you're talking. On a diabetes forum, it would be seen as common sense to reduce carbs, to omit any fruit that isn't berries etc. etc.

And while it shouldn't be complicated it actually is. There are far too many competing interests and far too much misinformation for it to be easy to settle on a plan, much less for that plan to actually be rooted in common sense. But you definitely seem to be on a great track.
 
By the way, this is what I think of when people mention portion control:


Also, this:

canada-new-food-guide-2019.webp
 
Common sense....another way to think about it is "sense" that is "common". That is, if you ask an opinion of a lot of people, it is the opinion most often given.

Often gets lost amongst the head banging of the very noisy few at the extremes who in their own opinion are really talking common sense.
 
Docb said:
Common sense....another way to think about it is "sense" that is "common". That is, if you ask an opinion of a lot of people, it is the opinion most often given.

Often gets lost amongst the head banging of the very noisy few at the extremes who in their own opinion are really talking common sense.
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... and of course if the "lot of people" whom you ask form a homogeneous group, you'll get one version of 'common sense' that might be quite different to that subscribed to by a different group, such as with political parties.
 
A wise and much respected senior colleague pointed out to me that common sense is a contradiction: seldom commonly found.
 
I have T2 diabetes and know about portion size, but what do people do if you don’t really like vegetables? Having half a plate of veggies is something I really struggle with, I don’t eat cabbage, sprouts, beetroot, cucumber, I will eat most other veg but only in small portions. I do like fruit but again things like apples bananas, pears , kiwis, nectarines etc. are on the don’t eat too much amber list so need to be limited. I feel that it is a real struggle and find the whole thing very difficult sometimes so much that it makes me give up.
 
Jillycoops5 said:
I have T2 diabetes and know about portion size, but what do people do if you don’t really like vegetables? Having half a plate of veggies is something I really struggle with, I don’t eat cabbage, sprouts, beetroot, cucumber, I will eat most other veg but only in small portions. I do like fruit but again things like apples bananas, pears , kiwis, nectarines etc. are on the don’t eat too much amber list so need to be limited. I feel that it is a real struggle and find the whole thing very difficult sometimes so much that it makes me give up.
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Welcome to the forum
Can you incorporate more vegetables into the dishes you are making so if you make a chilli for example add a whole range of veg to that. There is no need to feel you have to eat things you don't like just because they are on the 'good' list. Maybe looking at other ways of cooking veg or having raw will give a new perspective, so add cabbage to a stir fry or make coleslaw. Having a number of different veg on the plate rather than a lot of just one thing may be more appealing.
Berries are good fruits or just have half an apple or pear or have the 'fun' sized fruit.
It is the very high carb veg and fruits to be careful of but make the principal of only having 1 high carb food at ay one time, so wouldn't have a portion of each peas and broad beans together but may have half a portion of each plus broccoli.
I found the book 9there is an app) Carbs and Cals good for guidance on portion sizes as I can compare 80g of peas with 80g of carrots, helps make good decisions.
You may not have seen the link the this low carb program which has menu plans and recipes. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
 
I believe I'm a supertaster, and have similar issues with certain vegetables. In some cases I can handle small raw portions, but not always. Blending certain veggies into soups can work for me, as long as the soup is pretty spicy. But for me the best way is to juice them.
 
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