I was talking to a friend about a weighty issue today and the newest fad diet on the block. This miracle diet promises a dramatic weight loss, her friend has lost 35 pounds in 2 months, this seems a little drastic to me. She went on to explain that you have a restrict food list and eat 500 calories a day, but only certain foods are allowed. No fats, starches or starchy vegetables, in fact there are only 4 allowed vegetables on the list. Then there is the magic potion that the doctor gives out containing only who knows what. The quick answer to this question is no I will not go on this fad diet.
Then we got to the restaurant for lunch. My sandwich was served on what would be used as a platter in my grandma's day, in fact I might just have one hanging around the house. The cup of soup was served in another large bowl, we decided that it was the size of the bowls that was passed around the dinner table with the vegetables or potatoes.
The left overs that were brought home 1 pint of soup, which was suppose to be one serving. It will give me 2 meals. One half of the sandwich came home which will provide one meal. So to sum it up the left-overs from 2 meals out will provide 3 meals.
So my question is do we have a weight problem in this country caused by eating the wrong foods? Or do we have a weight problem caused by the wrong size plates? Do we need to eat as much as someone working on the farm from sunrise to sunset or do we need less with a less active life style?
A walk around an import store like Cost Plus might provide the answers we are looking for. If you look at the size of the bowls and plates from Japan meant for the Japanese consumer, you will notice that the soup bowls hold between 1/2 cup and 1 cup of liquid. The lunch plates are the size of our snack plates and the dinner plates are the size of our lunch plates. If you do find platters they are the size of our dinner plates.
On the other hand if you look at bowls meant for the American consumer the soup bowls hold at least 2 cup and the other plates seem to be getting bigger also. To accommodate the larger plates things like a slice of bread are getting bigger, so the bigger plates don't look so empty. I personally look back at the Wonder bread of the 1960's and look at the bread I just bought at the store today and the slice may be the same height but it is 1/3 wider. Which means the sandwich will have 1/3 more calories then the sandwich of the 1960's. Just try putting your sandwich in a Tupperware sandwich container from the 1960's or 1970's good luck fitting it in the container with out cutting it down to size.
If we take this across a whole day of eating that would be at least 300 calories a day. which would be at least 109,500 extra calories a year or a little over 30 pounds if we don't burn off the extra calories.
I wonder if anyone has done a study to correlate the size of the plates in a persons house with their body mass index. These are my random thoughts for the day. You never know what thoughts lurk in the mind of a mommy.
I wonder if it is time to go retro with my kitchen and down size all the bowls and plates? Well I think it is time to heat up some left overs for dinner.
Have a good evening and enjoy your families.
There's one more aspect to it with respect to dining out. The greatest portion of your meal cost is staff and facilities, not food. However, people only see the food and want value for their meal dollar. Thus, the restaurants feel they need to serve the large portions, or otherwise the patrons will not pay. I'm making up the numbers, but if you had a choice between $13.95 for a 10oz steak meal, and $11.95 for a 6 oz meal, many will choose the 10oz because their is more value for the money, and then clear their plate because that's what their parents taught them. So I think that not only do we need to downsize the plates, but we need to educate people that if they get the larger meals, order that take away box right away, set aside half your meal for the next day, before you start clearing the plate.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, as always...
hubby and i were discussin gthis just yesterday, we feel it is a combo of the two. but then also factor in that most of the food we eat have so many things injected into them that we are taking in after repetitive eating of them that who knows what has even happened to a normal persons chemistry regardless of the food we eat.
ReplyDeleteIf you try to buy the larger plates, they do not fit in your normal cabints. My son worked in restaurants and brought home leftovers a couple of times on the restaurant's plates, which are the size of a charger. These plates fit only in the lower, platter cabinets. (the restaurant went belly up and we inherited a couple of plates.) That is point ONE.
ReplyDeletePoint TWO is that I wonder why people do not stop eating when they are full? Do we do our best to stifle that feeling? Last night I picked the veggies out of my pasta but my hubby ate all of it. I was getting full but wanted a little dessert...he ate all of it. :o)
Basically whenever I eat out, I come home with 2 or 3 additional meals and I virtually never order an appetizer or dessert. That is just the normal main dish. And I am a vegetarian so we are not talking 10 oz steaks here. But everything is just plain super-sized.
ReplyDelete