What's An Ounce?

If you’re a frequent customer of an ILC café, you may have noticed
that our nutrition information is based on ‘one ounce’. This is simply because our buffet items are
sold by weight, so we are presenting
the nutrition facts in the same way. However, our most frequently asked questions are “what’s an ounce?” and “is one ounce a
serving?” To help everyone have a better understanding of
what one ounce vs. one serving of a particular food is,
Registered Dietitian Susan McGowan developed the following visual aids:

You may have picked one of these up from the dietitian's table in your cafe, but here is another chance to take a look at it. The plate pictures show what one ounce of
various foods look like. The text box below the nutrition card image provides
the suggested serving. For example,
pictured above is one ounce of the Vegetable Fried Rice, however, the suggested
serving is two ounces, or double what you see. We have also included the cup measurement or 'deck of cards' reference for further visualization.

When building a plate of food at the buffet, we recommend
filling ½ of your plate with non-starchy vegetables (such as salad greens, raw
cut vegetables, and/or roasted vegetables), ¼ of our plate with lean protein (chicken, turkey, fish, or tofu),
and ¼ of your plate with a nutritious starch (such as brown rice, sweet potato,
or one of our grain-based salads).
Sectioning your plate in this manner ensures optimum balance and
nutrient absorption, while helping you to serve yourself proper portion sizes.

If you have any further questions, or would like your own
copy of the above documents, please contact Rachel Griffin at Rachel.Griffin@ilcreations.com
or Susan McGowan at Susan.McGowan@ilcreations.com
. We hope that this sheds a little bit
of light on our nutrition labeling system and will help you make the best
choice for your individual needs.