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Inaccuracy of dietary self‐reports may result from an inability to estimate portion sizes of foods. To determine the influence of cultural factors, 162 subjects at three study locations in rural India and 100 subjects in Massachusetts, USA were asked to estimate weights and volumes of four commonly used food items. Compared with their Massachusetts counterparts, subjects in India evinced errors in their estimates of food weights which averaged only about 20% as large, with standard deviations less than half as large. In the combined data from the four study locations, relative to those with just primary education, individuals with some college overestimated the small and large reference weights by 79% and 52%, respectively (p <0.01). Implications of this research, including the use of quantitative dietary assessment methods in low literacy populations with relatively little formal education and possibilities of bias in epidemiologic studies, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]