It’s the Serving Sizes, Stupid

Forget the second helpings. It’s the sizes of the first servings that are making us heavier and heavier, writes New York Times health reporter Jane E. Brody.

Ironically, Americans continue to spend almost $50 billion a year on quick-fix diets, even though one of the main culprits behind obesity is as plain as the super-sized hamburgers under our noses at lunchtime.

Yes, genetics play a role in spiking obesity rates, albeit a comparatively small one. Along with inadequate physical exercise, an even bigger factor is our penchant for monster serving sizes, reflecting the longstanding American premise that bigger is always better.

To their credit, some restaurants, roughly 30 years ago, made a good faith effort to wean Americans away from this penchant with French-inspired cuisine minseur --- small portions of food, usually served on white plates, at prices previously charged for larger American-style servings.

Americans --- predictably --- didn’t buy it, demanding the biggest bang for their food buck instead. And they’re paying a heavy price for it: Obesity is now increasing at twice, sometime thrice, the levels they were several decades ago.

As Brody writes, “Nearly every dish and beverage Americans now consume is super-sized compared with what they used to eat.”

Posted by Jim Langcuster at July 11, 2006 04:28 PM | TrackBack