Two studies published this month suggest that what many of us now view as normal portions may actually be supersized.

Take college students, for example. In a study published this month in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, students ages 16 to 26 at a large northeastern university were asked to serve themselves what they considered to be typical portions of several breakfast, lunch and dinner foods.

Regardless of how hungry they were or how much they liked a particular food, students took portions of several foods -- cornflakes, milk on cereal, orange juice and fruit salad -- that were significantly larger than those chosen in a similar study conducted in 1984.

The study authors surmise that familiarity with huge portions at restaurants and large single-serving packaged foods may be leading more of us to consider these amounts to be typical or "normal."

A second study, published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, came to a similar conclusion.

Researchers asked people to guess the number of calories in 15 fast-food meals of various sizes. The study found that as the size of the meal increased, both normal weight and overweight people had a harder time accurately guessing the number of calories they contained. People consistently underestimated the number of calories in large meals. Who bought the largest meals, according to the study? The heaviest people.

What can you do to protect yourself against portion distortion? Plenty.

* Consciously downsize. At restaurants, order an appetizer as your entree, take a luncheon-portion meal or ask for a half portion of a dinner entree. If half portions aren't available, split an entree with a companion or plan to take half home. Think of it this way: Your food was half the cost and you have a quick meal ready for the next day. At home, switch to a smaller serving plate.

* Make your response automatic. Make it a habit to order less than you think you want. More times than not, the portion will be adequate -- and then some. The worst case: You can always order more if what you got wasn't enough.

* Read labels on packaged foods. Check the number of calories per serving as well as the number of servings the package contains. A frozen entree may, in fact, contain two servings, and a bag of chips may contain six. Multiply the number of calories by the number of servings you would realistically eat at one sitting to get some perspective on the actual calorie cost of your meal or snack.

* Stop before you are full. Most of us eat until we have a full -- sometimes even painfully full -- feeling in our stomachs. It's our signal that we've had "enough." Stop at three-quarters full instead. Don't let yourself get to the "I'm so full I could pop" stage.

And here's an exercise for you. The National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute has developed two fun, interactive quizzes available online at http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/portion/index.htm.

The quizzes ask you to guess how many calories are in today's typical portions of foods compared to portions of the same foods 20 years ago. You'll also find out how much physical activity it takes to burn the calories from typical servings of foods.

Downsizing your meals is a good way to regain better control over your diet. With a little attention aimed at your meal portions, you can save some money, improve your health and feel better.