Serving Up Obesity

by Diet Detective Editorial Staff
Friday, 07 July 2006
More than half of America’s adults are overweight. This figure is usually blamed on our sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise. But two recent studies show that we may also be eating too much! Restaurants are well-known for their generous portion sizes, usually large enough for two people. The trend of increasing serving sizes has lately been extending to other types of foods as well. Frozen meals -- even healthier options like Lean Cuisine -- are now offering entrees that are one and a half times larger than their typical meals. The number of servings in recipes are being slashed as cookbook recipes are modified to produce larger servings. And car producers are even accommodating super-sized coffees, slurpees, and soft drinks by increasing the size of the cupholders. "Bigger is better" has always been an American motto. But are Americans actually eating more when we are served larger portions? Researcher Barbara Rolls, Ph.D. of Pennsylvania State University, set out to answer this very question. She wanted to see whether an increase in the amount of food offered affects how much individuals end up eating. She tested this by offering study participants 4 different sized food portions on 4 different days. The portions ranged from a serving size of 2 ½ cups to 5 cups. Not surprisingly, her results showed that when people are served more food, they tend to eat more, no matter the sex, weight, or even dieting tendencies of the participant. And unfortunately, the participants did not feel any more full on those days when they were served larger portions, even though they had eaten significantly more food. Simply put, the "fattening" of America is closely linked to our portion size. So pull out those measuring cups and spoons before you sit down to eat your dinner -- you may be eating more than you think! Bookmark: Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Title Comment
Last Updated ( Friday, 07 July 2006 )