Food Sizes-Then and Now

gustergirl

I saw this on the msnbc.com website

In 1957, a serving of popcorn at the drive-in was 3 cups. Today a medium-size popcorn at the multiplex is 16 cups.

In 1957, 1 ounce of cooked ground beef made up your typical hamburger. Today the average hamburger is 6 ounces.

Muffins were tiny in 1957, about 1 1/2 ounces. Now they typically weigh in at 8 ounces and pack 400 calories.

A large soda in 1957 measured 8 fluid ounces compared with 32 ounces in 1997, or often 64 ounces today.

gustergirl

I saw this on the msnbc.com website

In 1957, a serving of popcorn at the drive-in was 3 cups. Today a medium-size popcorn at the multiplex is 16 cups.

In 1957, 1 ounce of cooked ground beef made up your typical hamburger. Today the average hamburger is 6 ounces.

Muffins were tiny in 1957, about 1 1/2 ounces. Now they typically weigh in at 8 ounces and pack 400 calories.

A large soda in 1957 measured 8 fluid ounces compared with 32 ounces in 1997, or often 64 ounces today.

Chellekk

I'm floored when I think about that! To think how many servings we are actually eating when we go out!
...or stay in for that matter!

Anna_Banana

I wonder why we are an over weight nation?:huh:

SHBoss1673

Plus they didn't have HFCS and partially hydroginated oils back then, so even if you did eat more, generally it was more natural and somewhat better for you (course they did use lard back then... YUCK!).

songbyrdsweet

Well shoot, no wonder a burger was 60 cents back then. It has nothing to do with recession. You weren't getting any meat! :laugh:

borac

Being from Europe.. i was shocked when i moved here and saw the size of the food portions here.. ( now if i went back i think i would starve on the European portions !?! )
My mother and sister came to visit from Germany - and they had trouble eating any of the cereals here, even the Special K.. they almost spit it out they said " this is loaded with sugar !!! how can you eat this .. ? !
Everything was too salty or too sugary..and i'm a pretty healthy eater.. i don't order food or eat out.. eat a lot of home made food etc.. but that was very surprising to me how they have reacted to the food here.. they said even the chocolates are so much sweeter than the ones in Germany, even though it's the same choclolate for exmpl " twix or snickers etc" .. they said here they are loaded way more with sugar.. and they said you can " taste the fat " in those chocolates.. they were disgusted !?! and when i took them to the grocery store, actually to " costco" they took pictures to show the " size " of the packages to theire friends in Germany..
I don't know but this is maybe just a sign that we are not even aware of how much fat, sugar, salt we consume.--how much more than people arround the world..

No where in the world ( and i have lived in a few countries through Europe ) can you buy this size of food.. Costco - is actually something that is considered a " whole-ware house for business holders" and " regular " customers wouldn't be able to buy groceries if that store was in Europe..

Also- in Europe when you order a soda, you get the " small size " cup.. and no refills.. if you want another one you have to pay for another one..

Stuff like that.. " extra this " extra that " .. adds up..

The culture here makes it a little easier on the " overweight people " when you order big size food no one is looking at you really .. and if they think " wow you are big and want still that much " - they have to keep it to them selves.. while in Germany for exmpl.
they can make coments- it's not assault or ilegal.. when you walk down the street people can call you names.. etc it's not ileagal like here.. i used to go through a lot of " verbal harrasment " when I was a teanager back there..

sorry for the long post ..

keiko

I was amazed when I saw what a dinner plate, bowls....use to look like. They were a lot smaller than the ones we buy now. Look at old sets in antique or second hand stores.
When we fill a plate now that is probably the amount of a plate and seconds. And how many of us use to eat that whole first plate and have seconds. That is a lot of extra food we trained ourselves to eat. Trained ourselves to think we needed. I am so glad that we can untrain ourselves of unheathy eating and start new. Training our bodies to be satisfied with a normal portion and not the huge ones.

Jain

I've actually bought some new crockery recently. Its about 1/3 smaller than what I was using previously, and neither my Hubby or myself have noticed the smaller potions.