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Government control of portion sizes and calories
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Venezuela has this obesity thing all figured out.3
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HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
How?!Packerjohn wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »"Mega jug" Please tell me that's some sort of sharing option?
No, and that's the problem, people drink the whole thing. I believe some convenience stores call the 64oz the bladder buster.
That's 1.8 litres!
HOW?!
Thinking about it, I would expect someone to get through between 400ml to 1 litre of water over an hour of very intense exercise on a pleasantly hot summer's day. (25 degrees C/77 degrees F?)
I've never really thought about how big cup sizes are in the US - I mean, I knew they were BIG, but just kind of accepted that's general trend everywhere.
Maybe we do drink significantly more than other countries. I was amused by your astonishment to a 64oz drink, because I realized that on road trips, I will easily grab a 32oz fountain drink with very little ice every few hours. I always drink diet or zero sodas, so the calories aren't an issue, but I guess that is a lot of liquid.
I'm also amused by 'pleasantly hot summer's day at 77 degrees
. Most of the places I've lived (various southern states and deserts in the SW making up a majority of them) would consider 77* to be a refreshingly cool summer day, lol. I think the high this week is going to be 98* on Friday . . . . . This is also why I scoff at all of the people who say that treadmills are awful and boring. They may not have fresh air and scenery, but they also let you run without getting heat stroke :P! 3 -
HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
How?!Packerjohn wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »"Mega jug" Please tell me that's some sort of sharing option?
No, and that's the problem, people drink the whole thing. I believe some convenience stores call the 64oz the bladder buster.
That's 1.8 litres!
HOW?!
Thinking about it, I would expect someone to get through between 400ml to 1 litre of water over an hour of very intense exercise on a pleasantly hot summer's day. (25 degrees C/77 degrees F?)
I've never really thought about how big cup sizes are in the US - I mean, I knew they were BIG, but just kind of accepted that's general trend everywhere.
Maybe we do drink significantly more than other countries. I was amused by your astonishment to a 64oz drink, because I realized that on road trips, I will easily grab a 32oz fountain drink with very little ice every few hours. I always drink diet or zero sodas, so the calories aren't an issue, but I guess that is a lot of liquid.
I'm also amused by 'pleasantly hot summer's day at 77 degrees. Most of the places I've lived (various southern states and deserts in the SW making up a majority of them) would consider 77* to be a refreshingly cool summer day, lol. I think the high this week is going to be 98* on Friday . . . . . This is also why I scoff at all of the people who say that treadmills are awful and boring. They may not have fresh air and scenery, but they also let you run without getting heat stroke :P!
I live in London, have lived in places with hotter summers and go on holiday to very hot places. I consider 77 a nice summers day but I know people who would find it unbearable. But we can get much much warmer in London (not this year right enough).
Even when sweating my *kitten* off quite literally on holiday in Florida cannot fathom chugging down 64oz in a period of time that wouldn't make carrying it a total pain in the backside.1 -
That's why I don't get those huge sizes and find their popularity bizarre -- I find them unpleasant to carry, even just in a movie theater.
But never underestimate the power of a good deal and getting all that extra soda for free!1 -
We've had our summer.
At my current health and weight, as far as I remember, 77 degrees F is fine, but at above 82 degrees F, I couldn't make myself move with any decent speed during my supposed workout time, and I was one of the least affected in the group. As in, I turned up! I even had to stop wearing jeans.
Fortunately the heatwave only lasted a week or so.
I can't imagine carrying 32 ounces in a takeaway beaker. It's like imagining a tea cup the size of my head. Or a wine glass with an entire bottle of wine in it, as an everyday thing; as opposed to using one of those joke wineglasses for a photo, that is.
Here that's a personal bottle measure, because carrying it around in a cup would be far too inconvenient for carrying around all day, and they wouldn't even sell bottles that size in a vending machine. Coca Cola and other soft drinks are sold in vending machines (or the refrigerated units near shop doors) in 330ml cans (11-ish ounces) or in 500ml bottles (17 ounces) quantities. Interestingly, bottles of still and sparkling water are getting bigger, I'm sure of it. You can now run in and grab an individual 1 litre bottle of chilled water with your lunch, and I'm sure they used to only ever go up to 500ml.
If you go down to the main soft drink aisle to buy for home consumption, the most common sizes are 1.25litres, 1.75 litres and 2 litres.
(Aldi UK has a really good deal on two-packs of 2.25 litre bottles most of the time.)
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I'm older so I remember when portion sizes and especially beverage sizes were smaller in the USA. When I was working my first job, in the early 1980s, I used to get a cup of coffee from a street vendor in NYC, and it was about 6 oz, or 8 oz. at most. I remember when the "mugs" became popular--before that we would drink out of small tea cups/coffee cups at home, which probably held at most 4 oz. I remember the first BIG muffin (which are the muffins that people eat now). Before that a muffin was about 1 inch or 1.5 inches in diameter. I have also lived in other countries, and going to the movies the differences in portion sizes were obvious. I remember going to the movies in other countries, and there was only ONE size snack. You got a small cup of soda, probably 6-8 oz. (smaller than any kid size here in the USA) and you got a small paper bag of popcorn, probably no more than 2 cups of popcorn in it.3
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I am for regulating portion sizes. Some people are truly not aware about what a portion size should look like. In my country several US restaurants have been setting up and their portion sizes are fricking huge. Their serving plates are like flying saucers and drinks look like really tall buckets. Almost four regular sized cups of local soda can fit into the cup at Burger King. As this progresses there's gonna be a generation of kids who would think these giant sized portions are normal.
I hate to break it to you, but speaking as someone born in 1955, that has already happened, at least here in the US. The things kids now think are normal were 1/4 the size (or nonexistent) then.
Standard soda pop in bottles was 7oz (=207ml) and - I forget - 10 or 12oz (296 or 355ml) - not liter bottles let alone 2L. Fast food was just getting started, and the whole gas station/convenience store/soda dispensary combo thing wasn't invented yet. Cars didn't have cup holders because we had nothing to put in them.
@lucerorojo is right. And even plates/bowls (for home use) tended to be smaller.
But I don't want the government measuring dinner plates for us either: I'm one'a them fractious 'murricans.4 -
We don't have drinks dispensers in our gas stations, you buy small bottles or cans of soda (330ml/500ml). I don't see people walking round with 1.5l bottles unless they're sharing really. And we don't do the bottomless refills thing either.2
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I actually don't see people walking around with soda much, and certainly not bottles larger than 591 ml (the 20 oz), which is popular but I don't think more than the 12 oz can. This could be location specific, though. I do see people walking with coffee/coffee drinks and water. People must buy the ridiculous Big Gulp things, but I never see people walking around drinking them.0
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lemurcat12 wrote: »I actually don't see people walking around with soda much, and certainly not bottles larger than 591 ml (the 20 oz), which is popular but I don't think more than the 12 oz can. This could be location specific, though. I do see people walking with coffee/coffee drinks and water. People must buy the ridiculous Big Gulp things, but I never see people walking around drinking them.
This is what I notice too-lots of people carrying insulated coffee mugs/Biggby/Startbucks cups, or water bottles/plastic water bottles, but I don't see a lot of people walking around with soda? We spend a lot of time at the park and most kids are either hitting the drinking fountain or have juice boxes, and most of the moms/dad's either have nothing, or are drinking some sort of coffee.
eta: I personally think coffee with add-ins are probably a much bigger calorie issue for adults, than soda is. It really does seem that a lot of people are oblivious to how many calories their coffee has, once they add in the flavored creamers, sugar etc.1 -
Motorsheen wrote: »peckchris3267 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »peckchris3267 wrote: »
Well, let's see. Here are some of my past jobs;Packerjohn wrote: »peckchris3267 wrote: »What about those whose job involves hard physical labor and they require high calorie food? Are they going to have to buy two lunches now to get through the rest of the day just because others have no self control?
You realize how small a % of the population this involves in a developed country?
Forestry, managed forest and fought forest fires.
Airborne Ranger in the army.
Pipe fitter/pipe welder, new construction.
Prior to those I was a competitive triathlete. Completed 2 ironman triathlons,(2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) and countless shorter ones over the course of 5 years while working in forestry and landscaping.
Those are just my experiences, how about professions like roofing?
I'm also an avid hiker doing day hikes as long as 20 miles. I want to be able to order as much food as I want after a hike like that.
I'm sure no one is going to restrict the amount of food you can buy. I wouldn't waste energy worrying about it.
Having to buy two meals instead of one large one costs quite a bit more.
At subway for example, a footlong BLT sub costs $7.96. If the government said they could no longer sell footlong subs because they have too many calories and I had to buy two 6 inch subs it would now cost me $10.18. That's $2.59 more.
Math
... it's hard !
And this is why I like to continue reading threads, before just jumping right in.
Thanks!2 -
OliveGirl128 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »I actually don't see people walking around with soda much, and certainly not bottles larger than 591 ml (the 20 oz), which is popular but I don't think more than the 12 oz can. This could be location specific, though. I do see people walking with coffee/coffee drinks and water. People must buy the ridiculous Big Gulp things, but I never see people walking around drinking them.
This is what I notice too-lots of people carrying insulated coffee mugs/Biggby/Startbucks cups, or water bottles/plastic water bottles, but I don't see a lot of people walking around with soda? We spend a lot of time at the park and most kids are either hitting the drinking fountain or have juice boxes, and most of the moms/dad's either have nothing, or are drinking some sort of coffee.
eta: I personally think coffee with add-ins are probably a much bigger calorie issue for adults, than soda is. It really does seem that a lot of people are oblivious to how many calories their coffee has, once they add in the flavored creamers, sugar etc.
This would not surprise me.
What I've read about soda is that it has a weird consumption curve where the people who drink a lot drink a huge amount, which brings up the overall average, but lots of people don't drink it at all and another large group drinks it quite moderately (I drink diet, but this is me). (This is actually similar to the consumption curve for alcohol, although I don't think it means soda is addictive -- I don't think that at all. I do think people drink it pretty thoughtlessly without thinking about the calories or considering it a food that counts.)1 -
OliveGirl128 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »I actually don't see people walking around with soda much, and certainly not bottles larger than 591 ml (the 20 oz), which is popular but I don't think more than the 12 oz can. This could be location specific, though. I do see people walking with coffee/coffee drinks and water. People must buy the ridiculous Big Gulp things, but I never see people walking around drinking them.
This is what I notice too-lots of people carrying insulated coffee mugs/Biggby/Startbucks cups, or water bottles/plastic water bottles, but I don't see a lot of people walking around with soda? We spend a lot of time at the park and most kids are either hitting the drinking fountain or have juice boxes, and most of the moms/dad's either have nothing, or are drinking some sort of coffee.
eta: I personally think coffee with add-ins are probably a much bigger calorie issue for adults, than soda is. It really does seem that a lot of people are oblivious to how many calories their coffee has, once they add in the flavored creamers, sugar etc.
Starbucks/Juice boxes aren't really that much of an improvement over soda; and in many cases are actually worse.1 -
stanmann571 wrote: »OliveGirl128 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »I actually don't see people walking around with soda much, and certainly not bottles larger than 591 ml (the 20 oz), which is popular but I don't think more than the 12 oz can. This could be location specific, though. I do see people walking with coffee/coffee drinks and water. People must buy the ridiculous Big Gulp things, but I never see people walking around drinking them.
This is what I notice too-lots of people carrying insulated coffee mugs/Biggby/Startbucks cups, or water bottles/plastic water bottles, but I don't see a lot of people walking around with soda? We spend a lot of time at the park and most kids are either hitting the drinking fountain or have juice boxes, and most of the moms/dad's either have nothing, or are drinking some sort of coffee.
eta: I personally think coffee with add-ins are probably a much bigger calorie issue for adults, than soda is. It really does seem that a lot of people are oblivious to how many calories their coffee has, once they add in the flavored creamers, sugar etc.
Starbucks/Juice boxes aren't really that much of an improvement over soda; and in many cases are actually worse.
I don't think anyone is making that argument. We are just talking about observations since some UK posters were giving theirs.
On a hot day I occasionally walk around with a ridiculously large Starbucks -- I dislike their hot coffee, but enjoy their cold brews. It's very low cal, as it's black. Other than the caffeine (which doesn't bother me), I see no reason this would be a bad thing. (If I have soda in a restaurant it's diet too, so eh, who cares if I get a refill.)0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »I actually don't see people walking around with soda much, and certainly not bottles larger than 591 ml (the 20 oz), which is popular but I don't think more than the 12 oz can. This could be location specific, though. I do see people walking with coffee/coffee drinks and water. People must buy the ridiculous Big Gulp things, but I never see people walking around drinking them.
Go to a convenience store, gas station, truck stop, etc where people are getting in their cars. The large cups fly out of those places.3 -
UK does have its obesity problems too, not to diminish that but there is definitely a cultural difference with what our poison is. I also think that we are slightly more naturally active because a lot of our cities are just a pain in the *kitten* to drive into so there's more walking to bus stops and train/tube stations etc.
I don't see many people walking round with coffees other than on the commute in the morning. And they aren't often the giant cups.
I think our poison is take aways. Things like Chinese, Indian, pizza, kebabs, chippies. It's natural to have a massive blow out at the weekend along with the alcohol consumption. And Greggs. Because sausage rolls and steak bakes.3 -
Packerjohn wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »I actually don't see people walking around with soda much, and certainly not bottles larger than 591 ml (the 20 oz), which is popular but I don't think more than the 12 oz can. This could be location specific, though. I do see people walking with coffee/coffee drinks and water. People must buy the ridiculous Big Gulp things, but I never see people walking around drinking them.
Go to a convenience store, gas station, truck stop, etc where people are getting in their cars. The large cups fly out of those places.
Well, then, they aren't walking around, are they?
I don't drive much either, so again may be atypical.
On the giant coffees, I mostly see people with coffee on the commute too, and probably walking around the vast majority of people I see aren't drinking anything (although we may be more likely to have a water bottle with us, as that seems common enough). I personally HAVE been known to walk around with a giant cold brew sometimes (mostly on a very hot day). My point was more that giant drink does not necessarily = lots of calories.
For the record, I have no particular broader point on the walking around with drinks thing except the UK posters seem to be getting the idea that everyone in the US is carrying giant beverages at all times and really that does not reflect what I see at all (in a city full of people walking around quite a bit).5 -
RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »No. I like the huge portion sizes. I can make one take away do three meals.
The calorie counts given in that article are suspiciously low.
This makes sense.
I ordered a meal today for lunch and immediately put half of it into a to-go container.
A lil' personal responsibility and restraint goes a long way.
We don't need some governmental hack dictating policy when it comes to ordering a burrito.2 -
To go boxes in restaurants aren't really a thing here.1
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VintageFeline wrote: »To go boxes in restaurants aren't really a thing here.
I always ask for one when I order my food because I know some of its going home with me. I'm on a wet burrito kick right now when we go out and those things are huge!2
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