Why Are Portions So Big?

Feasting on lots of food has been done throughout human history, as far as I know, usually in celebration of something.

The portion sizes at restaurants don't bother me. The problem is that people eat out at cruddy restaurants all the time. Some of this is the fault of the frankly dumb lifestyle average Americans are forced to live to pay their mortgage, and the rest of it is peoples' unwillingness to take an hour or two to learn basic nutrition - or, having learned that, to have some reasonable restraint when eating out.

Does anyone eat a massive deep fried restaurant meal and not know that they've just basically indulged in a vice?

Anyone who has been unhealthy and has become healthier knows a few things that average Americans need to learn, like:

(1) How to cook. I saw some ridiculous article on the cnn.com health page about how "experts" are completely confused as to why Americans aren't eating more vegetables. The answer is pretty obvious, Americans think they hate vegetables because in American cuisine, vegetables are often disgusting. If you've only ever had unseasoned soggy broccoli (as many or most restaurants tend to serve), no wonder you hate it. I would love to see the look on the faces of people tasting, say, asaparagus, cooked properly for the first time.

(2) What to cook. This goes back to the nutrition thing and what should by now be a sort of instinctual assumption that whole foods - produce, mainly - is best. Like, whatever disagreements exist among diet fanatics, I've noticed that no one has any problems with greens - low fat, low carb, or otherwise.

(3) Eating at TGI Fridays or Bennigans is a treat, a vice, an indulgence. These restaurants serve, mainly, crap food that some people really enjoy the taste of. And there's nothing wrong with that. Put a bullet in me if I ever stop demonizing, say, pizza. It's just not something that I can eat on a weekly or daily basis. I see stats on how much fast food people eat and it boggles my mind - my digestive system simply could not handle 4 or 5 Burger King meals a week, and I do love greasy food from time to time. I am not a delicate flower.

Lastly as to portion sizes and how nutritionally void food is at restaurants, it's going to take a consumer demand to change this. In particular, I am a big fan of Mongolian Grill "create your own stir fry" places where you have complete control over your own portions, what goes into your food, and how many bowls you eat. In my perfect world, these replace McDonalds and there's one in every zip code and in truck stops along our highways. Plus, it tastes great and is a textbook example of how you can cook vegetables and make them delicious. Beyond which, these places are compatible with any sort of diet - low calorie, low fat, low carb, and even those paleolithic diets. Vegetarians can make their dishes meatless.

Mostly, people are going to eat what's on their plate because (a) they paid for it and feel weird about not eating for something they shelled out money for, and (b) it obviously must be reasonable portion of food because it fills one plate, served to one person. Of course, it's not.

I don't blame the restaurants. They just want your repeat business. Serving lots of crap food is what most Americans want. Because as Americans, we tend to like crap. Crap food. Crap movies. Crap TV. Crap music. Crap government. I don't expect anything to change any time soon.

Fortunately there are facilities which serve the minority of us who are bored with crap. I'd like to pretend I'm outraged by it but I'm sort of numb to it. I just prefer stuff that isn't crap. But I'm not losing sleep over portion sizes in restaurants. It's just capitalism, functioning in a normal and predictable way.

Restaurants have no choice as they all won't take the potential risk of losing customers if they serve small portions...

I think it comes down to money. By including a lot of food the meals "appear" to be value for money. If they sold a smaller portion their sales would go down. A very small incremental cost adds a big gain in sales

Iggy-I agree about Mongolian Grill! Everybody I've taken there loves it, and they can eat as much as they want, but its infintely healthier than any fast food you can get!

Iggy Petulante said:
Because as Americans, we tend to like crap[...]

When I eat out, I almost always order healthy choices. I ask for the doggy bag when I order, and when the food arrives I put 1/3 of the order in the doggy bag right away. That way my portion size is OK, and I have lunch for the next day.

:-)

Brian

Weight Loss Easily said:
Restaurants have no choice as they all won't take the potential risk of losing customers if they serve small portions...[...]

A perfect compromise is to serve both, list a full portion and a half portion. Several restaurants here do this, and it is profitable for them, cause it is usually like full portion - $12; half portion - $7.50. Everyone is happy.

Iggy Petulante wrote:

The portion sizes at restaurants don't bother me. The problem is that people eat out at cruddy restaurants all the time. Some of this is the fault of the frankly dumb lifestyle average Americans are forced to live to pay their mortgage, and the rest of it is peoples' unwillingness to take an hour or two to learn basic nutrition - or, having learned that, to have some reasonable restraint when eating out.

Wow! Both left-leaning and right-leaning at the same time! :)

I think you're way over-analyzing. People like to eat, "comfort food" is similar around the world, and restaurants are businesses. As for "cruddy restaurants" and presumably "cruddy food", pick up any of the recipe collections produced by local organizations. They give a great view into the food most people like to cook.

I was interested in this because it's an example of "finding a niche and filling it". Who is in this group? How big is it? What are they looking for in a restaurant? I would have never thought it would be TGIF.

It’s cost effective for restaurants to serve large portions. They can bulk up the pates with cheap stuff like extra pasta, French fries, breads, etc. and charge you so much more for it (an un-relatively large amount). That’s easier to do with large amounts than it is to do with smaller amounts.

I’ve realized I have to just not eat out but I would prefer to pay more for healthier and smaller amounts of food.

I was just at TGI Friday's last week, and when I talked about ordering one of the Right Size dishes, my girlfriend said it wasn't enough for me! I proved her wrong, but that goes to show that this post is right on the money about people expecting large portions.

I really wish more restaurants would offer "Half sizes" for people like me who don't even want that amount of food set it front of them.

Sure you can split the meal if you are your dining companion want the same thing, if not, you are out of luck.

I would imagine it is because whenever a restaurant is able to sell you more food they make more money. Most of the money from the price of food comes from getting the customer in the door, paying for the door (rent), and paying for people to cook and serve the food.

You want double the food?? No problem! We won't even charge you double the price (since you have already paid off most of the costs just getting in the door). Increasing portion size increases margins.

I make a point of eating at resteraunts that serve smaller portions, choosing an appetizer or splitting an entree with another diner. Why? Because the resteraunt industry will not listen until more people start voting with our wallets for smaller portion sizes.

Most people aren't consciously aware of the amount of food they eat at a given meal. With that in mind, it's no problem at all for restaurants--especially fast food joints--to up the ante all the time and create dependency. The average size soft drink right now is 32 oz. Ten or 15 years ago it was 12 oz.

I actually kind of like the portion sizes. I can always eat less or order a less filling meal. But when I'm hungry because i've been exercising a lot, I'm grateful that I'm not leaving the table a little peckish. But for me diet isn't a quantity issue rather than quality. I agree the chain resteraunts are not serving the most healthful of foods.

Message from Rosemary Petteruti: Yes, portions are bigger than they should be. But, we are in charge of our own destiny. Everyone needs to be in control of the amount they eat. Weight Watchers is great for learning portion control.

People should try fancy restaurants. They charge $20 for a 4oz fish fillet... and a few peas to garnish the plate.

I usually order kid portions if I'm allowed, but sometimes they're too big as well! They're just served on a more colourful plate. Beh.

It's hard to say whether it's the consumer driving the need for bigger portions or the restaurants increasing portions because of the competition - a little of both I think!

What is important is not whether or not the portions get bigger but instead how we manage ourselves around these bigger portions. We need to be more assertive in asking to share meals etc. if they keep insisting on making them so big or be confident in asking them to box some of it up to take home.

Here in the UK, this problem is geeting bigger and I often choose not to eat in restaurants that serve huge sizes of pretty bland food - pleased to see that a couple of them have a 'lite bite' menu. It is refreshing these days to go to a restaurant that sells quality food in normal smaller portions.

As someone who is working hard to battle emotional and comfort eating, it can feel like this adds to the pressure but it is down to me to feel confident enough to leave what I don't want or be more choosy about where I eat.

Servings have been getting bigger because food has been getting cheaper. I often split a main course with my wife.

One aspect that should also be considered is technology within the agricultural industry. For example, we now have HFCS which many view as a major contributor to our rising obesity rates. From a business aspect, producing a sweeter ingredient that requires less product (corn) is money in the pocket of producers. Similarly, "feed lots" have mastered the time/space requirements of taking an animal to its optimal weight/age criteria for harvesting. The only problem is what do you do with the leftovers?

If you can make more sweetner/syrup with less corn, what do you do with the extra corn? If you can produce more meat in a faster period of time, where does the extra meat go? Farmers, both feedlot and produce, aren't in the business of throwing away food (money).

They want to sell it, so they lower the unit price. Grocers, processors and restaurants buy larger volumes because of the price point. Now they have to get rid of it and have sales/discounts on large/bulk items or offer bigger portions on their menus.

I think there is a better use of the extra food than having it end up in front of us, waiting to be eaten.

I find the phenomenon of huge portions to be very strange. What is the value to leaving a meal feeling bloated? Eating too much is bad for your health, both in terms of weight-gain, and in terms of over-loading the system when it comes to digestion (and processing the crap that is in most of what passes for "food").

In the end though, I don't blame the huge portions on restaurants so much as I blame it on the customers who eat everything on the plate, no matter how much there is. You can choose to doggy-bag what you don't want. You can choose to frequent restaurants that have quality food rather than quantity. You are free to order child-sized.

Video: http://nytimes.feedroom.com/?fr_story=e68d75eebc7c7332d2b351b837bbea7b1a148cb7

I was watching the New York Times news video about this and couldn't believe how much food the smaller portions still contain: A half-rack of ribs and what appears to be the same amount of fries (around 2 cups or so). And here I thought that half a rack of ribs would be the typical gigantic portion and a quarter rack would be the "right size". Oh well, at least they are trying, sort of.

Rosemary Petteruti agrees: most places serve huge portions, I always take half or more home to my son. I have to admit, he never minds!

tonya said:

I really wish more restaurants would offer "Half sizes" for people like me who don't even want that amount of food set it front of them. [...]

Rosemary Petteruti is a fantastic cook. I love her lasagna!

psychsarah said:
Iggy-I agree about Mongolian Grill! Everybody I've taken there loves it, and they can eat as much as they want, but its infintely healthier than any fast food you can get! [...]

Why does Rosemary refer to herself in the third person? Christine wants to know.

I don't understand why portions are so large now.

Call me a conspiracy nut, but I don't believe the "offical" view, portions are large to save on costs or because of "value".

People in the 50's wanted value. I'm sure McDonalds in the 50's wanted to save on costs, but look how small their burgers, fries and drinks were (no 64 oz drinks back then).

I think the real reason, is that to sell more product, Coke and other interests have steadily pushed for larger sizes.

Sort of like longer commercial breaks on tv. More promos. The ending credits have gradually gotten squeezed out at the end of movies on tv, etc. All to sell more stuff.

Also, because of competition, every place now tries to "upsell you" to the bigger meal at the point of purchase. Would you like a salad for a $1.39 more?

Eventually the drinks are going to be as big as we are!!

This is why I like to rock take-away when eating restaurant grub. When I get my food home, I just divide it up into two or three or even four portions. With Asian food, which tends to come in hefty portions, this works fabulously and saves me a bunch of money, too.

I mentored an Asian girl last year, and whenever we went out for lunch she would take a picture of her plate of food. She couldn't believe the portion sizes.
She also told me that Americans are viewed by the Taiwanese (not all of course, but a lot of them) as being fat and stupid.