The first question to ask when reading a portion measure is this: is this number a raw weight or a cooked weight? Türkiye Beslenme Rehberi (TÜBER), Türkiye's national dietary guideline, gives both, and the difference between them is not small. The raw weight of one standard portion of rice and of pasta is 30 grams, and the raw weight of bulgur is 25 grams.
How much are the cooked equivalents?
The cooked states of the same portions are defined in the grain section: 90 grams of cooked bulgur or rice, 75 grams of cooked pasta. That is, a plateful of pilaf and the raw rice in the measuring spoon are two different views of the same portion.
Putting the two numbers side by side brings out the coefficient. In rice the cooked weight is 3 times the raw (90 ÷ 30), in bulgur 3.6 times (90 ÷ 25), and in pasta 2.5 times (75 ÷ 30). The difference comes from water being drawn into the grain; what changes is the weight, not the amount of nutrients. That is why the calories of the same portion are the same in both states; what changes is only how many grams those calories are spread over.
Bread and grain equivalents
The guideline ties the whole grain group to a single reference. One standard portion of bread is 50 grams, that is 2 thin slices. This amount is taken as equivalent to half a cup of cooked pilaf or pasta, to 1 small bowl of soup, and to 30 grams of breakfast cereal.
In practice this equivalence list is an exchange table: at the same meal half a cup of pilaf can be put in place of two slices of bread, and both count as one portion. This flexibility helps when following the daily number of grain portions. The guideline's daily grain recommendation is 3-7 portions, and at least half of that total is asked to be whole grain.
How is the measure built in vegetables and fruit?
The standard portions of vegetables and fruit were set by taking into account the serving amounts in the traditional kitchen. One standard portion of fruit is 150 grams. One standard portion of coarsely chopped raw green leafy vegetables eaten as salad or as a plain raw side is 75 grams; this amount corresponds to 2 cups or to 1 large bowl.
The inverse relation here needs attention. Although leafy vegetables are served at twice the volume, they have half the weight of the other raw vegetables that are not leaves. That is, while the eye measure grows the scale measure shrinks.
Where is each measure used?
Nutrition value tables are mostly written over 100 grams, and which state that 100 grams belongs to is stated in the record. The dry and the cooked states of a food are separate records; putting one in place of the other throws the calculation off by exactly the coefficient.
The practical way in the kitchen is this: raw weight is used in shopping and before cooking, and cooked weight on the plate and in following portions. If a switch between the two is to be made, the coefficients above are used.
Where does the hand measure come in?
The guideline states that describing a portion with words such as medium sized or small sized is not enough; it has been found that these terms can be perceived as different sizes even by people who have had nutrition training. For this reason it is stated that using easily understood hand measures such as the fist, the finger and the palm can raise the accuracy of the estimate.
The hand measure does not take the place of the scale, but it ties the two ends together: it builds a fixed bridge between the volume held in the hand and the weight on the plate. In fruit this bridge is clear — one standard portion of fruit is 150 grams, and for large fruits it corresponds to 1 cup or 1 fist.
Why is the measure split in two in vegetables?
In vegetables there are two separate lines. One standard portion of cooked vegetables is 150 grams; this amount comes to 1 cup, 4-5 tablespoons or 2 medium ladles. In raw plain and salad vegetables the measure is 150 grams as well, and the leafy ones stand outside this.
The guideline adds a warning too: the amounts that go into one standard portion are cleaned net amounts for vegetables. That is, the skin, the stalk and the discarded parts are not counted inside that weight; the weighing is done after cleaning.
Where does it turn into a mistake?
The most common mistake is equating the raw weight on the package with the amount on the plate. 30 grams of raw rice rises to 90 grams once cooked; if 90 grams of raw rice is put on the same plate, the portion has been tripled.
The second mistake is taking the equivalence list for nutrient equality. The guideline builds this equivalence over energy, so the protein or fiber content of two equivalent portions does not have to be the same. For an item by item comparison you can look at the nutrition values table, and for the grain portion frame at the whole grain article.