Pass the (small) plate, please

I don't know if it's the cold weather or the prednisone or both, but I have lost all sense of portion control. I eat too much at one sitting, usually at night, and then I overdo it on the sweet stuff.

The government's new dietary guidelines, released Jan. 31 by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, advises against this behavior, suggesting that you eat smaller portions. Other suggestions seem pretty similar to the old ones, such as eating more fruit and vegetables, eating fiber-rich foods and cutting down on fats and salt.

My sodium is low, so I am actually supposed to eat more salty snacks, in addition to taking three salt tablets a day. Too bad my sugar isn't low; I'd much rather sit down with a bag of chocolate chip cookies than one of potato chips.

Jane Brody's column in yesterday's New York Times, headlined "A Simple Map to the Land of Wholesome," offered helpful pointers, but I had to laugh at some of them.

"Make less seem like more by eating on smaller plates," she wrote.

Ha. You can't fool me. I'll just get a second helping.

For desserts, she suggests such nutritious treats as bite-size pitted prunes topped with a ball of finely chopped blanched almonds and mixed with a little honey. I think I used to try to fool the kids when they were younger into eating this kind of "treat."

Things like prunes filled with peanut butter or bananas sliced in half and topped with peanut butter and raisins, the old Ants on a Log variation.

Sorry, but I need to have some chocolate. I guess I will try to eat a little less of it.