Are portion sizes that much larger than they used to be? You betcha! Cookies, muffins, candy bars, steaks, sodas, and countless other foods started blimping out during the1970s, dramatically inflating in the 1980s, and have continued to swell, to the point where some food products are now Godzilla-sized versions of their original selves.
Food portions werent always so massive. Back in the 1950s, McDonald's offered just one size of French fries; that size, containing 210 calories, is now the smallest of five sizes on the menu the largest contains a whopping 610 calories. The 7-Eleven Double Gulp, a 64-ounce soda (nearly 800 calories) is ten times the size of a Coca-Cola when it was first introduced in 1886. In fact, beverage sizes have ballooned so much over the past generations, auto manufacturers have had to install larger cup holders to accommodate them.
Studies show that muffin tins, restaurant dinner plates, and pizza pans are growing too. Even cookbooks suggest larger portion sizes than in the past: In a 1960s version of The Joy of Cooking, a brownie recipe was considered to serve 30 but now the exact same recipe serves only 16 brownies!
Much of this portion size porking up appears to have happened without consumers noticing. But weve certainly noticed how much our waistlines have expanded. Not surprisingly, our regular consumption of super-sized fries has led to a nation of super-sized thighs. With 65% of Americans now considered either overweight or obese and nearly half a century of failed diet and exercise plans, its more important than ever to pay attention to portion size. Its one thing research overwhelmingly points to as a successful, proven weight loss method. For example, the highly respected National Weight Control Registry, an on-going research study that tracks more than 6,000 people who have lost weight and successfully kept it off, points to portion control as their number one weight management strategy.
