Ever Expanding Meals

It is a truth: what you put on your plate, you will eat. It is easy to blame ourselves for the monster portions that are commonplace in North America, but I think the real problem is that people have gotten so in the habit of eating without paying attention, that large amounts of food go down absent-mindedly. People then conclude, quite wrongly, that "I have a big appetite" and assume they need large portions of food to satisfy themselves. A vicious circle.

I am often shocked when I watch television and see the portion sizes of Americans in such places as Burger King.

Why is it that in Australia our portion sizes are no where near that big ?

I wonder who decides that type of thing ?

I also find it amazing that N. America obsesses (with justification) about weight, weight loss, obesity, low fat, no fat and blah blah but when confronted with smaller portions, they balk.

"make monstrous portions because people buy them."

...because people eat them. Yes, the vicious circle, but also somewhat self inflicted.

In America, big is better is the mantra...it is all quantity over quality. Drink sizes are HUGE (and who in the world eats 5, let alone 11 cups of popcorn????). Small there is medium or large outside of the country. I know, having lived there many years.

When I lived in Germany or Belgium, I really tired of overhearing visiting Americans whine about the 'small sizes' of portions, be it meals, ice cream (small balls here as opposed to HUGE ones in the US as a norm.) or coffee in proportions never heard of in Italy (cafe latte, or macciatto or cappucino in HUGE cups). Food and drinks are downed without thinking, drinks guzzled - nothing savoured.

I 'think' food per sitting is supposed to satisfy and not stuff.

It is true in general, N. Americans are not aware of what a normal size meal is and consume in ONE sitting, often the calories for a whole day. Business and making money (we serve more than XXX) has encouraged this mentality.

By the way, here in Spain, food portions are generous. But the mediterranean food is different and I suspect the metabolisims in general need it. Still, drinks, ice cream etc - foods outside of a 'meal' are normal - meaning small compared to N. American standards.

Just my input from 'across the pond'.

Ouch. As an American, I'd like to make a distinction here. The post finishes with the quote "You cannot blame the restaurants - it is a case of supply and demand. Restaurants and food vendors make monstrous portions because people buy them." I contend that buying things and demanding them are two separate things. I believe that the portion size increase might have originally started with demand... like why McDonald's started offering larger fry sizes. However, it's spun out of control. The fact is, the larger the portion size becomes, the more the restaurant can charge for a meal. This is true whether you can actually finish the meal or not. Nobody cares if you take lefotvers home, as long as you spent $15 for the meal. Also, if the restaurant next door has huge portions and your restaurant has normal portions, people think they are getting a better deal next door (even if they pay more).

I don't know of anybody clamoring for larger portion sizes, except maybe the obese people who became obese through ridiculous portion sizes to begin with. Actually, since the obesity epidemic people are clamoring for smaller portions and healthier choices, which is why McDonald's nixed the "Super Size" portion. There are still such limited choices though. You can get a salad (though most are loaded with extras that add fat and calories), or maybe certain places have a baked potato or a grilled chicken sandwich. That's about it! If you want to eat healthy, your only choice is to stay home.

I agree Jenn. I was in Central America for a couple weeks and was pleased with the nice small portions I was served at the restaurants. We had surf n' turf consisting of a petite steak and just 3 good sized shrimp, which is a LOT smaller than I'm sure you'd find here. All the fast food sizes were smaller too. I was so excited that the "small" frosties from Wendy's were served in a petite 6 oz foam coffee cup. I didn't feel deprived or anything. I agree with Jenn that companies market this huge food so they can charge a bit more for it...mostly with low cost items like potatoes, pastas, soda, etc. Things with HUGE profit margins. It's all about the $$ with these companies...they don't care about the health of people. Plus, people think big things are a better deal, even if they don't need it.

I do wish we were offered smaller portions for no other reason than price.

Aside from that, restaurants are not responsible for how much someone eats. Who cares if they took away Super-size? If I want that many french fries, I'll just order two of them! If I'm at a restaurant that is offering me two sides with my entree, I can opt to double the veggies instead of having some veggies and some fries. I just won't give up my will to a restaurant. Sorry.

That's true, Christi, but just doing two orders of veggies doesn't make it any less food. It may have less carbs than potatoes and be a healthier choice, but I bet it's still served on a mega-platter with a steak as big as your head.

I got takeout from Outback Steakhouse the other night... a regular steak, baked potato, and salad. I ate the salad first and was almost completely full just from that... and it's supposed to be an appetizer! I was *unappetized* to confront the rest of the meal after that.

Lately I've been focusing very hard on only eating until I feel full and taking the rest home. However, half the time I just throw the leftovers away because who wants to eat the same thing three times in a week? Sometimes I'll also share a big meal with my boyfriend... we'll order one big dinner (like a seafood combination plate) and an extra salad. I'm now considering ordering from the kids' menu at places like Outback. If you ask nicely and tip well, most places don't have a problem with you dodging "the system."

"If you want to eat healthy, your only choice is to stay home."

Jenn - I can definitely identify with what you're saying, but could I suggest that healthier fast food options may not be as unavailable as first thought.

Eating at home is definitely preferable, but there are some fast foods that are healthy, you just need to be a bit choosy. I was just blogging about this today actually.

I'm sure you've heard of Subway, not all their sandwiches are low fat, but they sure beat MacDonold's 219 g Big Mac Burger (563 calories and 33 grams of fat - that's just over half your fat intake for a day in one burger - if you have chips that's probably the other half).

Subway's six inch (222g) Under 6 Roast Beef Sandwich weighs in at just 290 calories and 5 grams of fat. I'd say that'd be a healthier option.

I don't want to sound like Jared in one of their commercials, but if you're on the look out for a healthier option in the fast food area, Subway is one option.

But then having said that, if you look at MacDonald's Bacon Ranch Salad with Grilled Chicken - you get 311 grams of salad. Within that you get 236 calories (less than the subway sandwich) 10 grams of fat - still double that of the subway sandwich but miles better than the Big Mac.

I hope that helps. I do recognize though, that it's harder to buy healthy fast food, because often they don't have nutrition panels available before you buy the food. So I guess it's just knowing what you're buying before hand that is the difficult bit with fast food.

It might be helpful to have healthy options already researched, you can look up the nutrition information for many fast foods at NutritionData

I think that the problem is that some of us have to travel either for business or pleasure. Planes, thank God, don't serve meals anymore, so you're at the mercy of the food outlets in the airports. Some healthy choices can be found, but it's not easy. There's always a Cinnabon (which I used to love before I went on this diet). So you're not only dealing with portion, but fat content, and also the fact that it needs to be eaten quickly. Also you're likely to be eating out at your destination a good bit.

Any hints for us travelers?

This discussion in general reminds me of how I struggle to find something diet-friendly in restaurants, given that my family and fiance like to eat out a lot. It is true that the portions are huge. I usually let someone else take the rest of mine home. I noticed a post that said there aren't many healthy options on menus. That is totally true. I actually just saw a commercial that I thought was kind of ridiculous. It was of a woman (of course, men don't watch their weight, right?) complaining about not finding healthy eating-out meals. Then she went on to inform people that Applebees has ten, count 'em, TEN Weight Watchers item on their menu! Well, I've been there, and they do have a little "diet" menu but they also have about 50 other things that are a lot more, well, appetizing. I mean, does everything have to be one extreme or the other? Weight Watchers or huge portions of deep-fried whatever?
I also wish that the calorie info was put on every menu. I liked when they did that at Ruby Tuesday but they've taken it off here...because frankly people don't want to know that their nachos have like 2000 calories. I guess it was bad for business. I sure would like to have the information be more widespread, but I doubt it'll ever take off. The majority just either doesn't care or doesn't want to know. That is a problem in and of itself.

Healthy fast food or restaurant food ? Maybe some places in the US, at least many of the restaurants have salad bars which give you the freedom of choice at least. Try going out in Norway ! Quite apart from the exhorbitant prices, there's not one healthy place (that I've detected). Except maybe in Oslo, I wouldn't know, but outside the capital, nada, zilch, nothing. Most Norwegians call having a hot dog at the gas station "eating out" because it's the only thing almost affordable. That pre-chewed lang thing is stuck inside a soft white bun, and loaded up with shrimp salad (or potato salad, raw or fried onion, relsih ... or all the above) plus ketchup and mustard (which here is sweeter than most). Then they wash it down with coke or some other soda. If you want to have a healthy snack on a Saturday, say, and it's after 3 p.m., forget it, all stores are closed. You need to find a mall with a health food store, and hope to pick up a protein bar which doesn't have too bad a composition. Eating out here is virtually impossible.
Eating at home is a challenge too, due to the restricted availability of foods in the "supermarkeds" (barely larger than a country store). Some chicken filtes, otherwise it's all frozen fish. Meats are all marinated (in what ?!). The other choices are sussages in all shapes and sizes, frozen pizzas by the ton (or close to it), filled buns, hand-held "foods", all to be heated in a microwave oven ... Fresh fruit and vegetables are often anything but fresh, sending me to the frozen foods again.
Eating healthy and staying lean and in shape here is a real challenge ! Most other countries, maybe excepting the former East Block, have at least a decent choice of fresh foods so that you can cook from scratch.
I'm looking forward to a vacation in France, where restaurant portions are normal, prices likewise, and you can have either veggies (green beans mostly) or potatoes/rice - not necessarily both. Or just a steak with a salad and nothing else.

I won't blame restaurants because they've got a deal with big pharmas to get people sick, so they buy their drugs.On the otherhand, the health education centers should be the ones to be blamed,or I suspect the they also are benefitted from this through contributions from those pharmas to such organizations.

Think about this: Once, a Christmas present would be a cloved orange or a pair of socks or a piece of candy -- one piece. people loved Christmas. The presents were held behind the back, put in the recipients' shoes or socks, or wrapped in fabric that could be and was reused. Then, it was a book or a box of candy or a hammerand some nails. In the socks, one might leave a piece or three of candy, or perhaps a ribbon or a handkerchief. Now a Christmas present is a bike, a car, or a computer. The sock holds no gifts. Instead, everyone gets a "Christmas stocking" as big as a t-shirt, crammed with such "stocking stuffers" as ipods, CDs, wads of cash, gift cards, and boxes of fine jewelry. That is, if you believe what you see in ads all season. Those of us who can't compete with this orgy feel inadequate and unwanted. people often hate Christmas.
Think of breakfast. Once, it was a food item. A couple of eggs, a piece of fruit or a bowl of porridge. Now, a "complete" breakfast includes snazzy, jazzy, novelty cold cereals, a cup of coffee loaded with candy and spice, a stack of waffles and several slices of fruit, if you believe the ads. Lunch/ Forget the sandwiches your parents used to make. Now, a packaged lunch is a sauce-oozing entree, a rich dessert and a carby snack such as crackers. Oh, I forgot the sweet drink. what used to be a meal is now a snack. Dessert was once a rare treat. Then it was once a week. Then once a day. Then with every meal. Now it's approaching nonstop.
Same phenomenon. Competition has made us rich, jaded, and miserable.
The way to eat less is to eat less. the hard part, which I struggle with constantly, is releaning to be comfortable while doing so.