Are people with diabetes confused about how much food they can eat? First, it is important to know how much a serving of food is. The facts may be different than expected.
Suppose you eat a cup of rice at dinner, but a serving is actually 1/3 cup. So that’s 3 times the amount of carbohydrates you think you’re getting.
To avoid this mistake, it is important to know exactly how much is in a serving. Talk to a dietitian or diabetes educator.
1 serving of fruit
- Half a banana
- 1 small apple, orange, or pear
- Half cup of chopped, cooked, or canned fruit
1 serving of vegetables
- 1 cup raw leafy greens
- Half cup cooked, raw but chopped or canned vegetables
- Half cup vegetable juice
1 serving of bread, cereal, rice, starchy vegetables, and pasta
- 1 slice of bread
- Half an English muffin, bread, small bagel or pita
- 1 15 cm tortilla
- 4 to 6 crackers
- 2 rice cakes
- 28 grams of ready-to-eat cereal
- half cup cooked cereal, pasta or ground dry wheat
- 1/3 cup rice
- 1 small potato or half a large potato
- half cup sweet potatoes or yams
- half cup corn kernels or winter squash, peas, lima beans, and other starchy vegetables
1 serving of nuts, poultry, fish, eggs, dried beans, cheese and meat
- 57 to 85 grams of cooked lean beef, veal, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, or fish
- 57 to 85 grams of low-fat natural cheese (such as Swiss, cheddar, muenster, parmesan, mozzarella, etc.)
- half cup cooked dry beans
- 1/4 cup tofu
- 1 egg (or equivalent amount of egg substitute)
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 57 grams processed cheese
- half cup low-fat cheese
- half cup canned tuna in water
1 serving of milk and yogurt
- 1 cup low-fat milk
- 1 cup low-fat yogurt (no sugar, or use aspartame or other artificial sweetener instead of sugar)