Why are US meal portions so big??

Morn66

A recent survey stated that 98% of the worlds obese population were american, this is quite shocking if you think about it. most users on this site appear to be from the US so maybe things are changing

Sorry, I'm callin' BS. The current US population is, if memory serves, about 320 million, about half of which are obese. That makes 160,000,000 obese people in the US. So...are there only a little more than 160,000,000 obese people in a world population of 6 billion? Don't think so, given that India, at least, also has an obesity problem, and the population of India is about 4x that of America.

In fairness it also said that americans also had the lowest tolerance to sarcasm in the developed world, i think these north koreans may be making these things up

So...Maybe I'm just particularly dense this evening, but are you saying you were being sarcastic when you posted about this survey? I mean, if North Korea wants to be propagandistic, that wouldn't be surprising, but your original post said nothing about the origin of the survey and, again maybe I'm being dense, but I wasn't reading sarcasm or tongue-in-cheekiness from your post. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your intent.;

But whatever the case, the numbers still don't add up. A quick bit of math says that India currently has almost as many obese people as America, so...Yeah. And that doesn't count the obese people in the rest of the world, either. I hear the UK is in the 50% range, too. Clearly, a well-developed economy with high availability of cheap food = obesity. India, as a quickly-developing nation, is feeling the pinch now. Or the bloat, as the case may be. It clearly doesn't really matter what the size of portions in restaurants are.

Oh, wait! I just realized that I boo-booed. 50% of the US population is overweight, not obese. So, there are actually far fewer obese (not just overweight, but obese) people in America than in India. So...yeah.

karlschaeffer

Good topic. Read Michael Pollan. Or watch "Supersize Me". Also, HBO did a 4 part series on obesity in America last year. Nothing new or radical, but a good summary on how & why obesity in the USA is an epidemic. Americans don't demand larger portion sizes. Since the late 1960's, they've been conditioned to accept larger portions of processed food by the industrial food complex. The Mayor of New York was roundly condemned for trying to limit large size soda cups as another example of intrusive gov't; but, what are you going to do in the face of the relentless Madison Ave blitz to over consume? And believe you me, I demand my god given american right to eat two jumbo burgers, supersize fries and a huge diet soda... (The diet soda cancels the burger & fries... right?) You can kinda get the idea when you realize, for example, that the recommended portion size for protein (i.e., meat) is the size of your palm; and you go to a chain restaurant and you get a piece of meat that hangs over the plate (a 12" dia plate at that); along with bottomless fries and no cost soda refills. Just my opinion... ;-)

3dogsrunning

A recent survey stated that 98% of the worlds obese population were american, this is quite shocking if you think about it. most users on this site appear to be from the US so maybe things are changing

Sorry, I'm callin' BS. The current US population is, if memory serves, about 320 million, about half of which are obese. That makes 160,000,000 obese people in the US. So...are there only a little more than 160,000,000 obese people in a world population of 6 billion? Don't think so, given that India, at least, also has an obesity problem, and the population of India is about 4x that of America.

In fairness it also said that americans also had the lowest tolerance to sarcasm in the developed world, i think these north koreans may be making these things up

So...Maybe I'm just particularly dense this evening, but are you saying you were being sarcastic when you posted about this survey? I mean, if North Korea wants to be propagandistic, that wouldn't be surprising, but your original post said nothing about the origin of the survey and, again maybe I'm being dense, but I wasn't reading sarcasm or tongue-in-cheekiness from your post. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your intent.;

But whatever the case, the numbers still don't add up. A quick bit of math says that India currently has almost as many obese people as America, so...Yeah. And that doesn't count the obese people in the rest of the world, either. I hear the UK is in the 50% range, too. Clearly, a well-developed economy with high availability of cheap food = obesity. India, as a quickly-developing nation, is feeling the pinch now. Or the bloat, as the case may be. It clearly doesn't really matter what the size of portions in restaurants are.

jayjay12345654321

A recent survey stated that 98% of the worlds obese population were american, this is quite shocking if you think about it. most users on this site appear to be from the US so maybe things are changing

I doubt the accuracy.

Ooh, let me help. :smokin:

If y'all want some statistics, here's the obesity % per population of the world. The US led last year but Mexico and the UK are catching up. (1)



Also, according to the World Health Organization, "In 2008, more than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight. Of these over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese." (2)

As of 2012 the US population estimated around 313,914,040. I'm not good at math but if 30.6% of people in the US are obese and that number amounts to 98% of the world obesity numbers, there's more than 7 billion people who are in a healthy weight range in the world (the estimated current world population being 7,111,379,600 as of 7:51 PM CST (3)

So your "recent survey" can go suck eggs.

Citations:

1: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity
2: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/
3: http://www.census.gov/popclock/

The Heart Attack Grill would be proud for its share of responsibility.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/13/heart-attack-grills-unofficial-spokesman-dies-of-heart-attack/

pseudomuffin

I like large proportions in restaurants! I eat what I can there and the rest goes in a "to go" box and I eat it later on. That's the best part a meal to eat later.

That's an interesting point, I wonder if the portions are large because we're a doggy bag society... Taking uneaten food home as leftovers isn't a common phenomenon in the rest of the world because it's like "used food" even though it was on your own plate.

I don't judge others for taking leftovers home but I personally do not because I find it gross... if I don't finish it, it's staying there for them to throw away.

hilts1969

A recent survey stated that 98% of the worlds obese population were american, this is quite shocking if you think about it. most users on this site appear to be from the US so maybe things are changing

Sorry, I'm callin' BS. The current US population is, if memory serves, about 320 million, about half of which are obese. That makes 160,000,000 obese people in the US. So...are there only a little more than 160,000,000 obese people in a world population of 6 billion? Don't think so, given that India, at least, also has an obesity problem, and the population of India is about 4x that of America.

In fairness it also said that americans also had the lowest tolerance to sarcasm in the developed world, i think these north koreans may be making these things up

So...Maybe I'm just particularly dense this evening, but are you saying you were being sarcastic when you posted about this survey? I mean, if North Korea wants to be propagandistic, that wouldn't be surprising, but your original post said nothing about the origin of the survey and, again maybe I'm being dense, but I wasn't reading sarcasm or tongue-in-cheekiness from your post. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your intent.;

But whatever the case, the numbers still don't add up. A quick bit of math says that India currently has almost as many obese people as America, so...Yeah. And that doesn't count the obese people in the rest of the world, either. I hear the UK is in the 50% range, too. Clearly, a well-developed economy with high availability of cheap food = obesity. India, as a quickly-developing nation, is feeling the pinch now. Or the bloat, as the case may be. It clearly doesn't really matter what the size of portions in restaurants are.

Oh, wait! I just realized that I boo-booed. 50% of the US population is overweight, not obese. So, there are actually far fewer obese (not just overweight, but obese) people in America than in India. So...yeah.

Sorry it is a british humour thing, i did make it all up, the lazy op kind of set me up so i did a sarcastic response and a few took it at face value which surprised me so i went with it, i thought the korean thing would give it away, in all seriousness though i have vistied the states and love the place but what america does today everyone else does tomorrow and in my experience you have a massive health problem

Apart from california the excess is alarming and the UK is following suit

Cadori

A recent survey stated that 98% of the worlds obese population were american, this is quite shocking if you think about it. most users on this site appear to be from the US so maybe things are changing

Sorry, I'm callin' BS. The current US population is, if memory serves, about 320 million, about half of which are obese. That makes 160,000,000 obese people in the US. So...are there only a little more than 160,000,000 obese people in a world population of 6 billion? Don't think so, given that India, at least, also has an obesity problem, and the population of India is about 4x that of America.

In fairness it also said that americans also had the lowest tolerance to sarcasm in the developed world, i think these north koreans may be making these things up

So...Maybe I'm just particularly dense this evening, but are you saying you were being sarcastic when you posted about this survey? I mean, if North Korea wants to be propagandistic, that wouldn't be surprising, but your original post said nothing about the origin of the survey and, again maybe I'm being dense, but I wasn't reading sarcasm or tongue-in-cheekiness from your post. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your intent.;

But whatever the case, the numbers still don't add up. A quick bit of math says that India currently has almost as many obese people as America, so...Yeah. And that doesn't count the obese people in the rest of the world, either. I hear the UK is in the 50% range, too. Clearly, a well-developed economy with high availability of cheap food = obesity. India, as a quickly-developing nation, is feeling the pinch now. Or the bloat, as the case may be. It clearly doesn't really matter what the size of portions in restaurants are.

Oh, wait! I just realized that I boo-booed. 50% of the US population is overweight, not obese. So, there are actually far fewer obese (not just overweight, but obese) people in America than in India. So...yeah.

Sorry it is a british humour thing, i did make it all up, the lazy op kind of set me up so i did a sarcastic response and a few took it at face value which surprised me so i went with it, i thought the korean thing would give it away, in all seriousness though i have vistied the states and love the place but what america does today everyone else does tomorrow and in my experience you have a massive health problem

Apart from california the excess is alarming and the UK is following suit

The North Korean Times made me laugh, but I was afraid to overtly laugh in case you were serious and had nukes pointed at California.

I blame Oprah.

Mr_Starr

I don't judge others for taking leftovers home but I personally do not because I find it gross... if I don't finish it, it's staying there for them to throw away.

+1

ihateyoga

Yeah, I almost never finish my food in the restaurant, not because I'm watching my portion. it's because my can't eat that much. If I do finish my food, I won't be able to eat anything else for the rest of the day. I don't understand why people can eat that much plus drinks, deserts. And some people even go to buffet and get plates and plates of food.

smantha32

Here in Oregon, most places, even fast food joints, have a wine list, lol! We're like Napa Valley North. :drinker:

OMG... awesome!

JessHealthKick

living in Japan for a year then coming back to Aus... wow the portion sizes are so different. We have clearly f***ed up big time in the west. As for America, I have a few friends who have been there and hated the food because it is a battle to get fresh, 'healthy' food when you're out and the waiters hound you for tips (thanks to stuffed up minimum wage system in US).

Not that I can say Aus has super healthy fresh food either, but we have a lot of reasonably authentic ethnic food, so they use great fresh ingredients there I'm still hankering to go back and gauge on seafood in Japan though

Morn66

A recent survey stated that 98% of the worlds obese population were american, this is quite shocking if you think about it. most users on this site appear to be from the US so maybe things are changing

Sorry, I'm callin' BS. The current US population is, if memory serves, about 320 million, about half of which are obese. That makes 160,000,000 obese people in the US. So...are there only a little more than 160,000,000 obese people in a world population of 6 billion? Don't think so, given that India, at least, also has an obesity problem, and the population of India is about 4x that of America.

In fairness it also said that americans also had the lowest tolerance to sarcasm in the developed world, i think these north koreans may be making these things up

So...Maybe I'm just particularly dense this evening, but are you saying you were being sarcastic when you posted about this survey? I mean, if North Korea wants to be propagandistic, that wouldn't be surprising, but your original post said nothing about the origin of the survey and, again maybe I'm being dense, but I wasn't reading sarcasm or tongue-in-cheekiness from your post. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your intent.;

But whatever the case, the numbers still don't add up. A quick bit of math says that India currently has almost as many obese people as America, so...Yeah. And that doesn't count the obese people in the rest of the world, either. I hear the UK is in the 50% range, too. Clearly, a well-developed economy with high availability of cheap food = obesity. India, as a quickly-developing nation, is feeling the pinch now. Or the bloat, as the case may be. It clearly doesn't really matter what the size of portions in restaurants are.

Oh, wait! I just realized that I boo-booed. 50% of the US population is overweight, not obese. So, there are actually far fewer obese (not just overweight, but obese) people in America than in India. So...yeah.

Sorry it is a british humour thing, i did make it all up, the lazy op kind of set me up so i did a sarcastic response and a few took it at face value which surprised me so i went with it, i thought the korean thing would give it away, in all seriousness though i have vistied the states and love the place but what america does today everyone else does tomorrow and in my experience you have a massive health problem

Apart from california the excess is alarming and the UK is following suit

Ah, so I WAS just being dense, then. Yep, I'm lame. And I'm disappointed with myself because I usually get British humor. I guess for me it just doesn't sink in as well in text format. Plus, I didn't see the "North Korean Times" comment until I just now looked farther back in the thread.

And maaaaaaybe I have a touch of a conditioned "You're full of it" response to jabs at America because of obesity, as if we're the only country in the world with the problem. But for the record, there is one less obese person in the US as of sometime last week. That would be me. Although I'm not going to crow about it much because for me it's not the result of trying really hard; it's the result of a non-weight/diet-related metabolic malfunction that means I'm not absorbing nutrients properly. I'd actually rather still be obese, I think.

Madame_Goldbricker

Approaching it from the opposite angle here, but I would like to state I'm hacked off by the size decrease in many foods. Many chocolate bars have decreased in size but not reduced in price. Now that is a true issue :sad:

hilts1969

A recent survey stated that 98% of the worlds obese population were american, this is quite shocking if you think about it. most users on this site appear to be from the US so maybe things are changing

Sorry, I'm callin' BS. The current US population is, if memory serves, about 320 million, about half of which are obese. That makes 160,000,000 obese people in the US. So...are there only a little more than 160,000,000 obese people in a world population of 6 billion? Don't think so, given that India, at least, also has an obesity problem, and the population of India is about 4x that of America.

In fairness it also said that americans also had the lowest tolerance to sarcasm in the developed world, i think these north koreans may be making these things up

So...Maybe I'm just particularly dense this evening, but are you saying you were being sarcastic when you posted about this survey? I mean, if North Korea wants to be propagandistic, that wouldn't be surprising, but your original post said nothing about the origin of the survey and, again maybe I'm being dense, but I wasn't reading sarcasm or tongue-in-cheekiness from your post. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your intent.;

But whatever the case, the numbers still don't add up. A quick bit of math says that India currently has almost as many obese people as America, so...Yeah. And that doesn't count the obese people in the rest of the world, either. I hear the UK is in the 50% range, too. Clearly, a well-developed economy with high availability of cheap food = obesity. India, as a quickly-developing nation, is feeling the pinch now. Or the bloat, as the case may be. It clearly doesn't really matter what the size of portions in restaurants are.

Oh, wait! I just realized that I boo-booed. 50% of the US population is overweight, not obese. So, there are actually far fewer obese (not just overweight, but obese) people in America than in India. So...yeah.

Sorry it is a british humour thing, i did make it all up, the lazy op kind of set me up so i did a sarcastic response and a few took it at face value which surprised me so i went with it, i thought the korean thing would give it away, in all seriousness though i have vistied the states and love the place but what america does today everyone else does tomorrow and in my experience you have a massive health problem

Apart from california the excess is alarming and the UK is following suit

The North Korean Times made me laugh, but I was afraid to overtly laugh in case you were serious and had nukes pointed at California.

I blame Oprah.

You are now my favourite poster although i am a little bit fickle(do americans use the word fickle?) nice ice cream by the way

smantha32

Good topic. Read Michael Pollan. Or watch "Supersize Me". Also, HBO did a 4 part series on obesity in America last year. Nothing new or radical, but a good summary on how & why obesity in the USA is an epidemic. Americans don't demand larger portion sizes. Since the late 1960's, they've been conditioned to accept larger portions of processed food by the industrial food complex. The Mayor of New York was roundly condemned for trying to limit large size soda cups as another example of intrusive gov't; but, what are you going to do in the face of the relentless Madison Ave blitz to over consume? And believe you me, I demand my god given american right to eat two jumbo burgers, supersize fries and a huge diet soda... (The diet soda cancels the burger & fries... right?) You can kinda get the idea when you realize, for example, that the recommended portion size for protein (i.e., meat) is the size of your palm; and you go to a chain restaurant and you get a piece of meat that hangs over the plate (a 12" dia plate at that); along with bottomless fries and no cost soda refills. Just my opinion... ;-)

How making the companies market that supersized item as the 3 portions it really is, instead of tricking people into believing it's one portion, and then continue to let people themselves decide what they're going to eat instead of trying to regulate everything?

Yeah if you look up calories at a restaurant it will tell you that meal is 1200 calories, but it doesn't tell you it's actually 4 portions and not 1.

smantha32

I like large proportions in restaurants! I eat what I can there and the rest goes in a "to go" box and I eat it later on. That's the best part a meal to eat later.

That's an interesting point, I wonder if the portions are large because we're a doggy bag society... Taking uneaten food home as leftovers isn't a common phenomenon in the rest of the world because it's like "used food" even though it was on your own plate.

I don't judge others for taking leftovers home but I personally do not because I find it gross... if I don't finish it, it's staying there for them to throw away.

I bring home the leftovers but if I don't eat it within 2 days it tends to go to waste. I don't mind leftover food but I don't like old food.
Luckily I have some cats that will hoover up just about anything.

smantha32

Approaching it from the opposite angle here, but I would like to state I'm hacked off by the size decrease in many foods. Many chocolate bars have decreased in size but not reduced in price. Now that is a true issue :sad:

YES!
And bags of chips and crackers that are half empty for the same price.

shapefitter

It is always difficult to discuss, cultural differences, without offending, someone.

Zaniejane

Here in Mexico it is frowned upon to have all the food on one plate. Usually the rice is served alone on a plate before the entrée, which comes afterwards with tortillas in an extra container to keep them warm. Only poor people ( who basically live of rice and beans ) and I like to have their rice touch the stew and the beans on the same plate. I can't say, but wonder if this little part of Mexican food culture has maybe some bearing on how Mexican meals are served in the US.

I figured it had to do with South Texas' proximity to Mexico and the high Hispanic population in the Valley region. I've been to a "Mexican" restaurant in Canada. They had never heard of enchiladas. Makes me wonder how far off we are on other cultures like Thai food that aren't even on the same continent.

Canadians have never heard of enchiladas? Wow,that is so primitive! Or maybe you just meant one particular Canadian at one particular restaurant.

slkehl

As a starving college student, I appreciate it. Dinner for the next two nights!