Obesity

Super Sized Meals and Super Sized Waistlines

December 3, 2009
By Scott Z Henderson

As portion sizes have increased so have the waistlines of Americans. Obesity is one of the leading challenges facing public health today. Two thirds of Americans are considered overweight or obese. The rate of obesity has risen 60 percent over the past 20 years in adults and has doubled for children over the same time period. It is the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States just behind smoking. Obesity increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and many cancers. Along with inactivity, increased portion sizes can be partially blamed for the rapid growth of obesity.

Food portion sizes have grown over time, in the 1950′s a “Family Size” bottled of Coke was advertised as 26 ounces. Today single serving bottles are sold at 20 ounces per serving. McDonald’s original burger, fries, and a 12 ounce Coke provided 590 calories. Today’s Extra Value Meal that includes a Quarter Pounder with cheese, super sized fries, and a super sized Coke contains 1550 calories. Twenty years ago bagels were between 2 and 3 ounces, today’s bagels are between 4 and 7 ounces.

In the 1970′s portion sizes started to rise, but in the 1980′s they began to soar and have continued to increase since then. This trend has run parallel to the increase in the number of overweight people and the number that are obese. In 1978 the average daily caloric intake was 1876 kcal, in 1995 it rose to 2043 kcal. The 167 calorie per day increase equates to an extra 17 pounds of body fat every year if there is no increase in physical activity or a change in metabolism.

Americans are ingrained with the thought that bigger is better. When it comes to portion sizes, all of the national fast food chains realize this. Value meals are much cheaper as compared to the same items when purchased separately. Every fast food attendant is taught to up sell the buyer to a bigger meal size, from regular to super size, from super size to king size. Yes there is a better value in terms of the amount of food for the amount of money being spent, but the calorie intake is increased to levels that far exceed what an average person should be consuming for a single meal. The regular sized Quarter Pounder Extra Value meal is 890 calories, when super sized it soars to 1550 calories yet only cost 8 cents more than the regular sized items if purchased separately.

Fast food chains are not alone, look around any convenience store and jumbo sized items are everywhere. Candy bars, bags of chips, and even half gallon fountain drinks. 7-11′s Double Gulp Coke is 64 ounces, priced around $1.09, and packs a whopping 744 calories, more than 1/3 of the recommended daily intake. Sure you are getting more for your money, it’s only.20 cents more than the regular size, but your health will ultimately pay the price for consuming triple the amount of calories.

There needs to be a campaign educating consumers the true cost of “super sizing” and the benefits of “normal sizing”. In 2008, New York became the first city to implement a law meant to educate customers on how many calories they were consuming. Menus must post the calorie count beside the price for every item and in the same font and the same size as the price. People quickly started to realize how unhealthy the foods that they ate were. Even when consumers thought they were eating healthy foods the new calorie postings show otherwise, like a chicken salad at T.G.I, Fridays with over 1300 calories, 100 calories more than the cheeseburger and fries on the same menu.

Scott Henderson resides today in South Korea. He enjoys writing and other projects. One of Scott’s latest projects is http://backpacksforschoolonline.com/ which assists shoppers to find quality backpacks for school as well as waterproof backpacks.

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