Are your food portions too big?

Our portions have become super-sized compared to the small servings we ate in the 1950s. Photo / iStock

With super-sized plates, takeaway meal deals and food advertising bombarding us from every angle, it's no wonder many of us are eating larger portion sizes than ever before.

According to the British Heart Foundation, most English meals are four times larger today than they were in the 1950s, and the average size of ready made, shop bought meals has more than doubled in the past 20 years.

British data also says a supermarket pizza has grown from 200g in 1993 to 460g today, while a chicken pie has expanded from 160g to 240g.

And judging by New Zealand health stats, which say 31 per cent of Kiwi adults are obese, and a further 35 per cent of us are overweight, we aren't much better when it comes to super-sized food portions.

So how much should we be eating?

Red meat

According the the British Heart Foundation, a serving of red meat should be roughly the size of a deck of cards.

But with the size of the average dinner plate increasing by a third in the past 50 years, it can be hard not to pile on the food.

The British Heart Foundation says a dinner plate measured roughly 23 cm across in the 1960s, while today, most are about 30.5 cm in diameter.

Oily fish

While oily fish is a great source of omega 3 fatty acids, which can help to prevent heart disease, nutritionists say we should limit our portion to the size of a mobile phone.

Chocolate

Chocolate fans beware, British research has revealed a serve of your favourite sweet treat shouldn't be any larger than a tube of lipstick.

Chicken

Next time you tuck into a roast meal, watch your chicken serving, nutritionists say. British experts say a serve of chook shouldn't be any bigger than a bar of soap.

Other portions mentioned included restricting a serving of raisins to the size of a matchbox, peanut butter to the size of a golf ball, and a serving of potato to the size of a computer mouse.

-nzherald.co.nz