Fit Fare

The Portion Plan: How To Eat The Foods You Love And Still Lose Weight is a glossy book that was released in paperback in mid-December with a promising title written by Linda Gassenheimer. The premise of the book is that you can continue to eat the foods you love, so long as you moderate the portion size.    

This isn’t any ground-breaking nutritional news, especially for those of you who regularly read Fit Fare. On any visit to your neighborhood pasta joint, you can get a real sense of America’s portion distortion. Yet most people have lost a sense of what is a “reasonable” serving size. This book aims to visually convey what a true serving size is, and present a reasonably healthy way of eating which anyone can adopt. 

The Portion Plan makes its argument with beautiful and life-sized photos. These photos convey what a reasonable serving size is for an array of foods, from steak to French fries. What these photos are also able to show is how beautiful and appetizing healthy food can be. 

The Portion Plan also contains a 7-day eating plan, flexible from 1400-1800 calories per day.  This eating plan consists of dishes and ingredients that appeal to the average person – breakfast containing eggs, sandwich for lunch, and steak for dinner. Yet these dishes are prepared healthfully, so there are less calories which can be satisfying to anyone. Gassenheimer also makes a point of stating that any food you might want is not out of reach. If you have a craving for something – have it; but just in a smaller serving size. 

While The Portion Plan isn’t breaking nutritional ground, it does show that healthy food can be delicious and satisfying, a point we try to make on Fit Fare regularly. The eating plan it presents doesn’t ask you to eat sprouts, diet shakes, or combine proteins, fats, and carbs in exact amounts.  It is a guide for what anyone trying to get to or maintain a healthy weight should eat every single day; this presents a way of eating for life, not a diet. This part of the book I was both impressed and surprised with, despite the endorsement on the front cover from the author of The South Beach Diet.  Sometimes we get caught up in diets such as Atkins or South Beach, believing that it will be the magic bullet, but this 7-day eating plan presents that healthy and gratifying portions of food can be had every single day.    

As someone who already espouses a healthy diet, I do not believe I am part of the target audience for this book; this is directed at the average American who may eat a copious amount of fast food, and who struggles with eating healthfully.  Yet I was pleased to see rational ideas and habits presented.  If I knew someone who was trying to turn over a new leaf by eating healthfully, yet had no idea where to start, I would certainly hand them this book.