Are you eating enormous portions without even realizing it?

Inspired by two fascinating and quite funny books, Brian Wansink’s Mindless Eating and Lisa Young's The Portion-Teller, I’ve been paying much more attention to portion size lately.

These books persuasively argue that a key reason that people are gaining so much weight, so easily, is that we're eating gargantuan portions of food, without realizing it.

Both books are full of great examples—how the size of a croissant in the U.S. compares to one in France; how a serving of soda has gone from 6.5 ounces to 64 ounces; how cookbooks re-print the brownie recipe from thirty years ago as serving “15” instead of “30”—the batch is the same, but people think that brownies should be twice as big.

Therefore, the argument goes, an easy way to cut calories is to keep portion sizes in check. By ordering the appetizer size instead of the entrée size of pasta, for example, I can still have the fun of eating, and I won’t feel hungry, but I’ll eat substantially less.

When I was at my gym the other day, my instructor showed me some plastic food they have to illustrate proper portion sizes. Zoikes, I wanted those for myself! It gave me a real feel for the proper portions—plus the food is so realistic looking, it’s hilarious.

So I came home and found the site from which they came: Nasco. I hesitated before buying them, but then decided to “spend money to further my goals.”

For $29, I ordered plastic replicas of:
½ cup rice
½ spaghetti and sauce
3 oz. grilled chicken
3 oz. salmon
½ cup ice cream
1 tablespoon jelly

The Portion-Teller is full of suggested comparisons—a protein serving should be as big as a stack of cards, etc.—but I think it’s much easier to look at this dummy food to train my eye.

It’s striking: when I look at the plastic food, I think, sure, that’s a good amount of rice or fish or ice cream. But I know that if I got a plate that held that portion size, it would seem pretty meager. I put the fake spaghetti in our pasta bowls at home, and it looked so dinky at the bottom of the enormous bowl. (Note to self: don’t use the pasta bowls!)

And if I get tired of using this fake food to help me with portion control, the Big Girl and I can use them to play practical jokes on the rest of the family.

Comments

[Chris]

I read recently that this "super size" mentality has permeated our kitchens in subtle yet nefarious ways. When I looked through the tools and implements that we use to make meals, I quickly realized why a family can struggle with portion size. First, we used eleven inch plates. The Europeans use nine inch plates. The difference in surface area between the two is staggering. Eleven inch plates take up almost 95 square inches where nine inch plates offer only 63.5 square inches of surface. Further, when I looked at our silverware drawer, I realized that the sizes of our forks and spoons lent themselves to be better garden implements. As such, we recently removed all of our eleven inch "every day" plates and replaced all of our silverware with smaller utensils. We did this in August. Now we have noticed that we are cooking considerably smaller meals for our family. I believe this to be because of, now, months of experience in having too many left overs because there is simply no place on the plate to put the extra food.

Many think that these sorts of mental tricks are a poor replacement for self-discipline. However, not every daily routine should require your best thought. Consider the items you use to eat and questions whether or not this "kitchen hack" could save you time and a few Calories as well.

[kstyle]

Hmmm. I'm thinking this would have made a hilarious xmas gift for R. What a great dind. k

[Jeff O'Hara]

I think portion size is the single biggest problem when it comes to obesity. We as american's always think bigger is better, and it directly translates too our food consumption. If restaurants would actually give a portion size for one person instead of portion size for an army maybe we could actually reverse the obesity problem in the U.S.

-Jeff O'Hara
http://blog.zemote.com

[Mike S]

I had this conversation with a relative in the UK recently. While visiting she was amazed at the portions we dish out at our restaurants. Then she looked around and said, "No wonder America is overweight." Quite the generalization, obviously, but definately spot on. Thanks for sharing.

[Sharyn]

Another problem I think is linked to portion size: When we eat all,or even most, of what we are usually served in this country, we are training ourselves think that satiety means "stuffed". It trains us to eat until we are over-full, or can't hold any more, rather than eating until we are no longer hungry, and we think that's how we're supposed to feel after we eat. What's even worse is teaching that to our kids, without even realizing its happening.

[Sophia]

I have lived in Spain for 5 years, and the food is great. Never go hungry after a meal. I went back to Australia, my home country, and was shocked by the size of the coffees and servings of food, and also the inverse proportion of taste. Then I visited NYC, and I realised that attitude comes from the US. So, I believe you are right on the ball. Buy some small bowls, small saucepans and small coffee cups, and for gods sake throw away those drip filter coffee makers! A crime to good coffee.

I have found your website very helpful btw. Keep up the good work, I am sure you are helping a lot of people find the pearls in the mud of the internet and convuluted biased human history
(I am biased too, I only drink real expresso coffee! Sometimes bought from free trade shops. Makes me happy, even if in the long run I am not making a difference to the general exploitation of coffee growers... but nothing changes if at least people don't start thinking about it. The next step is action...

sorry for the long post.
Happy birthday for last week!

[Lara]

I love this post. So true! It makes me think about how when you first moved out of home and got all that old hand-me-down crockery, how all the bowls and plates seem "too small" by today's standards. Maybe that's saying something!!

[Monica Ricci]

Great post Gretchen! I agree with you that the American portion is GIGANTIC. Ridiculously so in many cases. (Have you BEEN to the Cheesecake Factory??) I won't even go there anymore because even the appetizers are too big for me!

I always try to be aware of my portion size when dining out, and 95% of the time, I order my meal from the appetizer section of the menu, or at the very least, try to convince my husband to share an entree with me. We have a favorite (and most excellent) place we eat locally, and typically we will share a small salad and then share an entree. We feel totally satisfied and the added bonus is that we spend half as much money.

Another thing that someone else mentioned is not eating until you're stuffed. I try to keep the mindset that I only eat until I feel "not hungry anymore" as opposed to eating until I feel "full." It helps.
~Monica

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