Hi:

Every time that I enter My Diet and choose whether I ate today Average, Poor or anyone of the choices, I really get confused.

What does it mean exactly a serving?

Does it mean 1 grape? 1 watermelon? How do you rate servings and know exactly how much is a serving for specific fruits and vegetables.

Thanks in advance.

Roberto Torres

Well, it really depends from person to person. However, if you want a general guide, the Canadian Food Guide has a pretty good explanation of how much of an item is a serving.

For example here you can find serving sizes for many fruits and vegetables. If you use the links you can find the same for the other categories.

To use that website, you need 20 grapes or 1/2 cup of watermelon.

I find, (based on that site) that you can usually expect 1/2 cup of a fruit or vegetable to work out to be a serving. There are a few that seem to require more/less. Like lettuce is more, and dried fruit is 1/4 cup.

Hope that helps.

Here are a couple more links for you to check out that help explain serving sizes.

URL Shows you how to 'estimate' serving sizes based on everyday items.

URL The USDA Dietary Guidelines.

With regard to logging in My Diet--I try to work toward meeting the 'Great' rating--it's a whole lot easier than trying to figure out if 23 M&Ms should be classified as Poor or Average--and is that a whole serving? I don't always eat clean, but when I do eat something that's not as good for me, I limit it to a small amount--and I make sure that my exercise for the day helps balance it. I usually know in my gut (ha ha) if I've had a Fair or Great day.

Good luck!