The recommended daily serving size of nuts is about one-ounce, an amount that should contain approximately 160-200 calories, full of protein and other nutrients (vitamin E in almonds, manganese in hazelnuts and iron in cashews, for example). A nutty snack will also fill you up with a good balance of protein, unsaturated fats and carbs. The problem lies in getting that one-ounce size. I know that if I want to eat some nuts, I don't put them on my scale in the kitchen before I pop them into my mouth, although I do worry a bit about how many I've eaten when a big bowl is placed in front of me. An extra serving or two of nuts can add up quickly, especially if you're indulging a bit extra over the holidays. The trick is to learn what a one ounce portion looks like and nutnutrition.com, which is run by Planters, has a great interactive resource to help you do just that. The site lets you see what one-ounce of nuts looks like when scattered and in a 1/4 cup measure. After a couple of visits to the site, you'll be able to sit in front of that big nut bowl and snack with confidence.

In the NY Times last week, professor Brian Wansink talked about some of his research on how people have relatively little concept of what they're eating and usually take visual cues from outside sources, rather than from their own bodies about fullness. He mentioned a test that involved giving participants stale and fresh popcorn in different-sized containers that showed people would eat more from the larger container - even if that was the stale popcorn. That is not the only experiment that he and his colleagues did to support their position, however. They have a whole repertoire of experiments that demonstrate the same results. The tests answered these questions:

• Do even educated eaters fall prey to mindless eating based on container size?
• Does a food or a wine label affect how people feel about their meal and how much they eat?
• How hard is it to correctly estimate portion size based on container size, and how can the shape of a container make you consume more?
• Does how food is described change consumption rates?
• Do visual clues help slow down mindless snacking?

The answer is "yes" to each of these questions and they way they got to that answer in each case was interesting. Re-naming peas as "power peas" got kids to eat more. Educated eaters still binged when given oversized bowls and color-coding chips so people could see exactly how much they were eating helped them to eat less. The tests don't necessarily tell us anything new, but it's always interesting to see how people react in these different situations anyway. In fact, it's sort of tempting to try them out on coworkers in the break room or, if you have a child that needs to do a science project, questions like these could be a good starting point.

They found that based on the old guidelines, only 40% of people were getting the recommended amounts. Based on the new recommendations, which are significantly higher, only 10% of people would be eating the suggested amount of fruits and vegetables.

Wait - 1999? The problem with the study is that it is comparing old data to our new standards. Granted, people weren't eating enough vegetables in 1999 and you can be sure that not all people are eating enough now, but dietary trends have changed enough that the comparison might not yield accurate results. In the past 7 years, there has been a tremendous growth in organic and natural foods, heirloom fruits and vegetables and in healthier eating overall. The trends are so much more prevalent now than they were when the data for the survey was collected, that it is likely the numbers are more encouraging, even if we're only up to 15% instead of 10%.