"portion size" news and stories

The single biggest factor that prompts people into overeating is portion size, and when more and more meals are eaten outside of the home, it is restaurant portion size that can cause a problem. Not only are the portions often huge, but they set a benchmark that distorts what people perceive as an appropriate amount of food.

An obesity researcher at Penn State University had 300 chefs from fine and casual dining restaurants take a survey that asked what things influence what size they make their portions. 4 out or 5 served more than the recommended portion sizes. 70% said that presentation was the biggest concern, getting a "wow" factor into the dining experience that might cause a customer to return. Value and portion size are often connected in the minds of the consumers, so larger servings come into play more than the actual plating. 65% said that cost influenced how much food they served, and 52% cited "expectations, which was primarily true of chain-restaurants and categories (like steakhouses, for example) that are known for being generous. Only 16% considered calories.

Chefs are not necessarily dieticians and their job is not to tell you what to eat or how much of you plate to clean before taking the rest home. It does make you wonder, however, if our priorities and theirs are in the right place when a 1-pound "serving" of pasta starts to look normal.

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In the NY Times last week, professor Brian Wansink talked about some of his research on how people have relatively little concept of what they're eating and usually take visual cues from outside sources, rather than from their own bodies about fullness. He mentioned a test that involved giving participants stale and fresh popcorn in different-sized containers that showed people would eat more from the larger container - even if that was the stale popcorn. That is not the only experiment that he and his colleagues did to support their position, however. They have a whole repertoire of experiments that demonstrate the same results. The tests answered these questions:

• Do even educated eaters fall prey to mindless eating based on container size?
• Does a food or a wine label affect how people feel about their meal and how much they eat?
• How hard is it to correctly estimate portion size based on container size, and how can the shape of a container make you consume more?
• Does how food is described change consumption rates?
• Do visual clues help slow down mindless snacking?

The answer is "yes" to each of these questions and they way they got to that answer in each case was interesting. Re-naming peas as "power peas" got kids to eat more. Educated eaters still binged when given oversized bowls and color-coding chips so people could see exactly how much they were eating helped them to eat less. The tests don't necessarily tell us anything new, but it's always interesting to see how people react in these different situations anyway. In fact, it's sort of tempting to try them out on coworkers in the break room or, if you have a child that needs to do a science project, questions like these could be a good starting point.

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It's tradition for Syrian/Sephardic Jewish families to come together and cook - a lot - during the celebration of Sukkot at the beginning of October. Many dishes are passed from mother to daughter and have been for years, perhaps centuries. "You want to make it perfect, just like your grandmother did."

Time and time again, Prof. Brian Wansink has proved that people have very little concept of how much they're actually eating. He uses experiments that test whether people use outside cues, as opposed to a feeling of fullness, to determine how much to eat. He works with food companies (unpaid) to help them reduce their portion sizes and promote healthier snacking in more reasonable amounts.

Clinton seems to be set on his mission to help kids eat healthier.

Yuzu can really brighten up fish and other dishes. Try it instead of lime if you find it at your local market.

Julia Moskin eats at NoLIta and gives it 1 star.

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The more food that is put in front of you, the better the odds are that you will overeat or, at least, eat more than you might otherwise. Generally, this is common knowledge, but some researchers put it to the test by giving people both good and bad tasting foods. Specifically, while one group of participants got varying sizes of freshly popped popcorn, another group was given 2-week old stale popcorn (described as "perfectly safe, just a bit funky"). The results proved the theory, when fresh popcorn eaters ate 43% more popcorn when it was served in a large container and stale popcorn eaters ate 34% more.

If the taste of a food isn't enough to stop people from eating it, it's best to control the size of the container that it's in. So do yourself a favor and use smaller plates and bowls, especially for snacking. Or fill up a bowl with healthy fruits and veggies for munching.

Exact portion size can be difficult to determine without measuring (which is an option), but there's too much variation in all those guidelines that compare portion sizes to, for example, the size of a fist. When in doubt, just take a little less that you think you should. At the very least, you'll be eating one less bite at a time - and over time, even a small change like will add up.

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Out of all the food trends we heard about back in December and January, there was one that is clearly becoming a big deal on th packaged food scene: miniature packaging, aka 100-calorie packs. "100 calories!" seems to be the hot new slogan on food products these days. The past three years have seen the market for portion-controlled packets go from 0 to more than 25 different foods. USA Today reports that 18 of the new products were introduced in 2005 alone. With more coming along this year, there is no indication that this trend is slowing.

Some of the newer products include 100-calorie sodas from brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Shasta. These sodas have a mere 8-ounces per can, fewer than the more standard 12-ounces, and are marketed as being more portable than their full-sized counterparts. Coco-Cola says that they're marketed at consumers who wish to "improve their snacking and drinking opportunities."

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