The average food portion in the US has grown in size dramatically the last few years. And look at the result: 61% of Americans are overweight, and 33% are obese, numbers that are getting worse by the minute - and with each Big Mac and Whopper.
In the January 22-29, 2003 edition of the Journal of the American Medical
Association, a study analyzed data from 3 US national surveys that had been
conducted between 1977 and 1998, and concluded that Americans are now getting
much larger food and drink portions, both at home and when they go out for their
meals. Thus, for example, the average size of a soft drink (which no one should
be drinking much of anyway, tut, tut) has increased by over 50% over the last
2 decades from an average of 13 ounces to an average of 20 ounces, although
the average calorie intake from a soft drink has only increased by about 1/3,
from 144 calories to 193 calories, in part, I suppose, because people are drinking
more diet drinks, but also because the people who dispense soft drinks are watering
them down more. I mean, remember when you actually used to have to ask for ice
in your soft drink? Now, just try to get a soft drink that isn't mostly ice
(not that I know about that firsthand; it's merely what I've heard).
When it comes to food portions, a good benchmark, I think, is burger size,
and the average American homemade burger has grown by nearly 50%, from 5.7 ounces
(about 1/3 of a pound) in 1977 to 8.4 ounces (over half a pound) in 1996, although,
surprisingly, the average fast-food burger hasn't grown as rapidly, merely from
6.1 to 7.2 ounces. That's probably because fast food joints prefer to fill you
with fries, of course, which are much cheaper to make and thus much more likely
to build their bottom lines, not to mention yours, too.
Hamburgers are not alone, of course. Mexican food portions have increased by
27%, snacks have mushroomed by 60% on average, and on and on. (By the way, for
your interest, 3 to 4 ounces of meat is considered to be a healthy portion.)
So what's wrong with that, you ask, as you contemplate that plate of giant
burgers and fries you've just made for your family's dinner?
Well, for a start, average food portions were adequate in the '70s. That is,
anyone who ate average sized portions in the disco era was well-nourished, so
all those extra calories we now get from our new upgraded "average" food sizes
go directly to our waists, our hips, our breasts - everywhere we don't want
them, in other words.
There's also this: we're no more likely to feel full on our new larger portions than we felt on the smaller portions we used to eat. That's according to an excellent study published in December, 2002, on a group of college students who were offered varying portions of their absolutely favorite food, namely, macaroni and cheese.
As you probably guessed, the more free macaroni and cheese these eating machines were offered, that is, the larger the portion size put in front of them, the more they ate.
And this applied to everyone: dieters and nondieters, men and women, students
of normal weight and the overweight, etc. If the food was there, they ate it.
Yet they also said that they felt no more full on the larger portions than they
had been on the smaller ones.
What's really scary is that this took place in a lab setting - that is, there
was no alcohol or social ambience to naturally increase an individual's urge
to eat - so just imagine how much more they would have eaten in more conducive
settings. Just something to bear in mind the next time you're out to eat with
the kids and they ask you if the fries you're thinking of getting should be
jumbo-sized (enough to feed a typical football team) or simply normal-sized (or
merely enough to feed a small orchestra).