Normal Eating. Agree or Disagree?

lucerorojo

lemurcat12 wrote: »

lucerorojo wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Agree (as noted above) about portion sizes and how often the average person eats out, but neither of those have a thing to do with different food being available, but about personal choices (or portion distortion). I also remember some options (not at fast food) being pretty darn big at restaurants, but since they were rarer, didn't matter.

For individually packed lunch, that serving size is always going to be up to the person packing it.

I don't think standard sized chips are differently sized, although there are larger chips. We have chips at my office (luckily for me I don't care about chips), and they are net weight 1 oz (28 g), and about 150 cal, depending on the type. Were they smaller than that back in the day? (My usual lunch was a thermos of soup, a baggie of crackers or maybe pringles (my mom did not get individual serving size chips), some kind of fruit or carrots and celery, and maybe a cookie if we had them around (either one my mom made or a couple of girl scout cookies or oreos). I could be conflating different years here.)

Single bags of chips were definitely smaller. Nowadays one has to really watch it with the "single size" bags of chips, because they are NOT one serving but usually 2-3 servings.

You can buy single serving. Like I said, I don't like chips, but they are at my office, and they are 1 oz, one serving, around 150 cal (some more, some less). I've seen bigger chips that could be perceived as single serving but which are really 2-3, sure, but those are not the smallest size available (and strike me as quite large, yes).

I am curious if the standard was less than these 1 oz bags before -- I don't remember since my mom didn't get single serving and I was smaller too.

I think they had small and large fries when I was a kid, but small was pretty standard even for adults and large was medium now (or even smaller -- and they may have discontinued the medium? Anyway, no supersizing).

You can buy small ones in YOUR area. I was a potato chip fiend and the only ones that are small (a real single serving) sold in stores now in my area are the pop chips. It really varies from city/suburb/rural and part of the country what is marketed and accessible. I'm in a city now known to have a lot of obesity--where I grew up, not so much. Your office might specially order them for the vending machine or buy in bulk, which is different from what you get at the corner store today.

lemurcat12

lucerorojo wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

lucerorojo wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Agree (as noted above) about portion sizes and how often the average person eats out, but neither of those have a thing to do with different food being available, but about personal choices (or portion distortion). I also remember some options (not at fast food) being pretty darn big at restaurants, but since they were rarer, didn't matter.

For individually packed lunch, that serving size is always going to be up to the person packing it.

I don't think standard sized chips are differently sized, although there are larger chips. We have chips at my office (luckily for me I don't care about chips), and they are net weight 1 oz (28 g), and about 150 cal, depending on the type. Were they smaller than that back in the day? (My usual lunch was a thermos of soup, a baggie of crackers or maybe pringles (my mom did not get individual serving size chips), some kind of fruit or carrots and celery, and maybe a cookie if we had them around (either one my mom made or a couple of girl scout cookies or oreos). I could be conflating different years here.)

Single bags of chips were definitely smaller. Nowadays one has to really watch it with the "single size" bags of chips, because they are NOT one serving but usually 2-3 servings.

You can buy single serving. Like I said, I don't like chips, but they are at my office, and they are 1 oz, one serving, around 150 cal (some more, some less). I've seen bigger chips that could be perceived as single serving but which are really 2-3, sure, but those are not the smallest size available (and strike me as quite large, yes).

I am curious if the standard was less than these 1 oz bags before -- I don't remember since my mom didn't get single serving and I was smaller too.

I think they had small and large fries when I was a kid, but small was pretty standard even for adults and large was medium now (or even smaller -- and they may have discontinued the medium? Anyway, no supersizing).

You can buy small ones in YOUR area. I was a potato chip fiend and the only ones that are small (a real single serving) sold in stores now in my area are the pop chips. It really varies from city/suburb/rural and part of the country what is marketed and accessible. I'm in a city now known to have a lot of obesity--where I grew up, not so much. Your office might specially order them for the vending machine or buy in bulk, which is different from what you get at the corner store today.

You can definitely buy them here without bulk ordering. They are what appear to me to be normal sized.

lorrpb

This seems like "ideal" eating to me, not "normal". If this were normal , the majority of Americans would not be overweight.

Need2Exerc1se

lorrpb wrote: »

This seems like "ideal" eating to me, not "normal". If this were normal , the majority of Americans would not be overweight.

Agree. It's more what should be normal than what is.

GaleHawkins

Maybe it is 'normal' eating but just not the 'norm' any longer.

CSARdiver

Normal eating is similar to normal spending. The issue is that when societies build up such abundance it becomes easy to spend outside your budget. The problem with eating is that the ramifications are not immediately detectable. By the time they are you have developed overeating into a habit...and habits are quite hard to break.

shaumom

Re: portion sizes.

I got curious with how many of us remember it differently, so I went looking.
Turns out people were interested enough to do a study on the subject, for the 70's and 80's vs. 2002, looking to see if portion sizes seem to be a potential contributor to obesity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447051/

Spoiler - portion sizes DID start to go up in the 70's, but really spiked in the 80's.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if some areas that were more isolated or rural had portion increases happening in a delayed fashion compared to the more urban areas, so we started in the late 70's vs. the early 70's. Would make sense considering how many other trends, food or other, tend to lag behind.

cbohling1987

For giggles on Thanksgiving I ate the normal turkey + mashed potatoes dinner, weighed and measured everything as best I could (and underestimated if I had to estimate, for reasons that I will explain in a second). Then I ate until I actually "felt full" according to my brain and body. Total? Over 4000 calories.

The moral of the story is that for overweight people/people who struggle with overeating, the whole "eat until you are satisifed"/"eat until you are full"/"only eat until the hunger craving goes away" doesn't work. We can't rely on our bodies to give us that information accurately. Therefore, we have to plan and track.

VUA21

TavistockToad wrote: »

Maybe agree, but what happens when eating a plate of cookies just because they are yummy happens every day? You get fat most likely...

Unless you're a distance runner or other athlete that has daily 5000 calorie burns (90% of Olympians), a plate of cookies a day is generally not a good idea. Dennis Kimetto could probably eat a box of cookies every day and stay slim (Kenyan runner that ran a marathon in 2 hours, 2 minutes...WOW!!).

tennisdude2004

A great way to eat for people who can eat that way.

I would suggest most overweight people have difficulty eating like that.

I know it doesn’t work for me!

GaleHawkins

distinctlybeautiful wrote: »

What is normal eating?

Written in 1983 by Ellyn Satter

Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied.

It is being able to choose food you enjoy and eat it and truly get enough of it – not just stop eating because you think you should.

Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food.

Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good.

Normal eating is mostly three meals a day, or four or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way.

It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful.

Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more.

Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.

In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food and your feelings.

(https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/how-to-eat/adult-eating-and-weight/)

I have been eating this way since I decided to never diet again after 40 years of yo yoing weight lost/gains. Now I just eat for better health . At age 63 I stopped eating food contaning added sugars and or any forms of any grains. The binging stopped on it's own after about 30 days on this Woe. Iost 50 pounds and have maintained the loss for the past three years. Now at 67 I am glad that I made this lifestyle change.