Packing on the Pounds
Researchers at Rutgers studied people's opinions of healthy portions today as compared to a similar study in 1984. They found that self-serve portion sizes have increased about 20-30% for some foods and even greater for juices. Much of this new attitude stems from what we see in restaurants today. The meal sizes, and especially the drink sizes, just keep growing.
I remember when 7-eleven came out with the 32 oz. big gulp. At the time, that was a huge drink. Now it's nothing to see people walking around with twice that. It's very difficult to find anything resembling a 'small' drink on most restaurant menus today.
A recent survey of 300 restaurant chefs found that the vast majority don't even consider calories in planning portion sizes. Most have no idea how many calories are in the meals they prepare. The just try and meet customer demands for bigger and cheaper dishes. A separate restaurant survey found that the average plate size grew from 25cm to 30cm in the early 1990's, which can hold about 25% more food.
An article in the Washington Post released this week shows how kids are bearing much of these unhealthy trends. The report states that kids, on average, consume about 165 calories per day more than they need. This creates an 'energy gap' that leads to slow but steady weight gain. An average teen today is packing about 10 extra pounds and 1 in 5 kids are now in the overweight or obese category.
What can you do? Some simple steps are to use smaller plates at home. Get kids used to seeing smaller portions as normal. Also, encourage snacking on healthy foods like fruits, vegetables or whole-grain crackers in between meals. This way they won't feel the need to gorge at meal-time. Finally, don't allow kids to order large drinks at restaurants. A single 12 oz soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar. That means a large 32 oz. size contains 25 teaspoons! Imagine sticking a teaspoon into a bag of sugar and dumping 25 into your child's lunch-time drink. Yuck!
Of course burning off some of those calories with a little physical activity is a good plan as well.
Copyright (c) 2006 The Brain Code LLC
Related Tags: obesity, nutrition, childhood obesity, portion size, restaurant meals, meal size
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