What's the Right Portion?
image promoting your health Snacking is an important part of a healthy diet, whether you want to lose weight, sustain energy or simply live a better lifestyle. Snacking sensibly can curb your appetite between meals and keep your energy up during a busy workday, but it can be hard to know exactly how much you're eating.

Maintaining a balanced diet is tough, and it helps to know exactly what we mean when we describe "serving sizes" and "portion sizes" on our packaging and information.

Put simply, a "serving size" is a standardized amount of food, specified by the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act. Some bags may contain multiple servings. A "portion size", on the other hand, is the amount of food you choose to eat – it could be half a serving, or a couple of servings.

To help you find your way around this sometimes confusing territory, we offer single-serving snack bags, as well as innovations like our 100 Calorie Mini Bites, which take the guesswork out of portion control.

As an average, a good portion for a mid-afternoon snack would be 1 oz of Tostitos tortilla chips with a couple of teaspoons of salsa, or 1 oz of Tostitos with homemade guacamole.

Some more handy tips for sensible snacking include:

-Try not to eat directly out of the bag. Portion your snacks out, so you know how much you're having.

-Store your daytime snacks in the kitchen, rather than at your desk or in your bag. That way you won't be tempted to munch when you're not really hungry.

-Bring your own afternoon snack to work. You won't end up grabbing an unhealthy option.

-Schedule snacks into your calendar. If you go for too long without eating, you might end up overeating when you finally find time to eat.

Of course, if you're considering making a serious change to your diet or eating habits, we recommend you speak to your doctor or dietician first.