You’re eating too much.

Don’t take it personally — that statement readily applies to most Americans these days.

We’re loading up our plates as never before — seeking out all-you-can eat buffets, crowding restaurants that take pride in dishing up enough chow to feed Paul Bunyan, guzzling bottomless tubs of soda from convenience stores and fast-food chains.

It’s a big problem, say dietitians and nutritionists, because people have lost the concept of how much they should be eating in order to stay healthy and keep their weight under control.

“I read a study recently that close to 70 percent of Americans eat everything on their plate when they eat out. If you give people more to eat, they eat more. What you’re served in a restaurant is perceived to be a serving. If serving sizes become larger, many people believe, ‘Well, that’s a serving,'” says Ann Chapman, coordinator of nutrition services at Kansas University’s Watkins Student Health Center.

But why should people care?

“I think the fact that obesity is an epidemic in our country answers that. It’s becoming exceedingly more important that the average consumer have a clearer understanding of what a portion is,” Chapman says.

Susan Krumm, an Extension agent in family and consumer sciences with K-State Research and Extension-Douglas County, agrees with Chapman.

“It’s extremely important. I honestly believe that because people don’t understand serving sizes, they are consuming more of the complex carbohydrates than they think they are. For example, one serving of pasta is one half cup — that’s of cooked pasta. How many people put one half cup of cooked pasta on their plate?” Krumm says.

“People are consuming too many calories for their activity level. Today’s mega portions promote the idea of eating until you’re stuffed, not just until you’re satisfied. The problem then is that adults and children lose their ability to regulate how much they eat as they listen less to their hunger cues.”

Surprised by size

Many people are surprised when they discover what a correct serving size of a particular dish really looks like, when following the Food and Drug Administration’s system of nutrition fact labels, or the Food Guide Pyramid of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

To visualize how much a serving of food is, it’s helpful to think in terms of familiar household items. That’s a method the American Dietetic Assn. uses to educate people.

For example, a bagel that is the size of a hockey puck would be one serving from the Pyramid’s Bread, Cereal, Rice and Pasta Group.

One serving from the Milk, Yogurt and Cheese Group could come in the form of 2 ounces of cheese, such as mozzarella sticks the size of two Magic Markers.

And a serving from the Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs and Nuts Group could be 2 to 3 ounces of meat that would be the size of a deck of cards or a cassette tape.

Like French Fries? Ten of them equal one serving from the Pyramid’s Vegetable Group.

“If people haven’t been in the habit of looking at a nutrition facts label, they would likely be astonished at what a serving size is. They would expect it to be larger,” says Adrienne Moore Baxter, an instructor in the department of dietetics and nutrition at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

“One half of a cup of noodles, macaroni or pasta is a serving size, and they’re eating three to four times that at one setting. A restaurant muffin, you’d have to eat only half of it to get down to one serving size.”

Correct serving sizes of different foods come as a surprise to most people today. There’s a reason for that, Chapman says.

“If they seem super small to you, the answer is that you’ve been in a society that has been increasing serving sizes ever since you were born.”

Read the label — carefully

Nancy O’Connor has spent years in Lawrence public schools and at the Community Mercantile Co-op, 901 Iowa, educating people about the important role of serving sizes.

“Especially with high-fat, highly-processed foods, we need to get a handle on how much fat, salt and sugar we’re taking in, and serving size is the handle. It helps you confront it,” says O’Connor, the co-op’s longtime marketing director and nutrition educator.

Nutrition fact labels, which offer information about serving sizes, often confuse consumers. And food companies aren’t helping matters by the way they package calorie-laden snacks such as potato chips, candy bars and soda.

For instance, the label on a candy bar might say that it contains eight grams of fat per serving — and that there are three servings in the bar.

“But there aren’t three servings in that bar. It’s not resealable, and it’s not divided into portions. So it’s really designed to be eaten at once,” O’Connor says.

Or the label on a 20-ounce plastic bottle of soda might show that it contains two and a half servings.

“That’s not right. It confuses consumers. They aren’t going to drink that in two and a half servings. This is where consumers get in trouble. Things aren’t packaged in a way that encourages them to eat things in prudent amounts,” she says.

O’Connor urges people to make better food choices, putting more emphasis on fruits and vegetables in their diets.

“You don’t have to worry about serving sizes when you’re eating healthy foods. Most people don’t count out 10 grapes. We don’t have a problem in this country of people eating too many carrots or too much broccoli,” she says.