Obesity is most commonly blamed on eating unhealthy items and the lack of exercise. Although these play a vital role in the cause of obesity, there needs to be another area examined which may play a larger role, food portions. “When McDonald’s first started in 1955, its only hamburger weighed around 1.6 ounces; now, the largest hamburger patty weighs 8 ounces, an increase of 500 percent (Monte 2008).”
This increase has not only been witnessed in fast food chains, but in restaurants, grocery stores and at home. Another study done by Young and Wansink, analyzed recipes in the popular cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, which has been in print since the 1930s and, “Found that portions for the same recipes have become larger in newer editions. A recipe for brownies that once made 30 servings now serves only 16 (Crane 2009).” In an eighty year period we double our serving size.
There are many buffets now days as well as “bottomless” options such as Red Robin’s “Bottomless Fries” which encourage customers to eat more than they have on their plate. According to a study done by Brian Wansink, the director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University in New York, subjects at a restaurant were “Given ‘bottomless’ soup bowls and ended up eating 73 percent more than those given regular bowls of soup (Crane 2009).”
When people have more food in front of their eyes they are likely going to eat it. I know personally when I go to eat at a buffet or eat some place where they have “bottomless” items, I leave the place feeling like I ate way too much and all that food turns to fat if I don’t burn it off.
We Americans like the most bang for our buck which is not a bad thing but, consider upgrading from a 32 ounce big gulp cup to a 64 ounce double gulp cup for only .20 cents, it’s such a great deal we can’t say no but that adds an extra 388 calories to our intake! Although it may seem economically smart, it’s detrimental to our health. “A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Americans consume around 10 percent more calories than they did in the 1970s. Given no change in physical activity, this equates to around 200 extra calories per day, or 20 pounds a year (Monte 2).” Choices like the big gulp upgrade adds that extra 388 calories and if we continue to make choices like that every day we're going to gain at least 20 pounds a year! Diet and exercise play a very big role in the cause of obesity but portion sizes are not examined or blamed like they should be. We Americans need to learn portion control or our war against obesity is only going to get harder.
“The NHLBI tells us that a serving of meat should be the size of a deck of cards while one pancake should be the size of a CD (Monte 2).”
Get the picture? Our servings are completely disproportionate to the servings we should be having. The more we eat the more energy the body has. Unless you work it all off which is unlikely with the portions most of us eat, it will be stored into fat. When we eat this much it is too difficult to try and make sure we burn it off. Food portion is one of the biggest contributors to the obesity problem we have now and we Americans need to acknowledge this and start to change our eating habits.
REFERENCES
Crane, Cody. “Plumped up portions: over the years, the serving sizes of food
have expanded and so have people's waistlines.” 11/9/2009. Reference Publications.
<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_5-6_66/ai_n42079032/>. 11/30/2010.
Monte, Liz. “Portion size, Then vs. Now.” 05/2008. Divine Caroline. <http://www.divinecaroline.com/79975/49492-portion-size-vs-now>. 11/30/2010.
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