Portions and Servings

Portions sizes can be confusing for a person of normal weight, and even more so for the overweight who may have more personal or medical reasons for wanting to consume less food. Many health agencies are aware of the public’s confusion on the subject and many have produced information online and off where people can learn more. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute has on online quiz where people are faced with the average sizes of a food item from 20 years ago and today. The user must guess the amount of calories in today’s size through multiple choice and compare it to the amount of calories in its older version. Family Economics and Nutrition Review defines a portion is the amount of food an individual chooses to eat or drink. It gets complicated because portions are most likely larger than what is considered a standard serving.

Serving sizes are simply a unit of measure used in the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid to describe the total daily amount of foods recommended for each of the food groups, and the Nutrition Facts Label on food packaging to specify the quantity of nutrients. In case you're not confused by now, the sizes in recommend in the Food Pyramid are not always the same as the ones found on a food label. Why, do you ask? Because they are there to serve different purposes. The MyPyramid image below is of the daily food amounts recommended for a 32 year old female: 6 ounces of grains are suggested. Below that is a food label for a Macaroni and Cheese dish. Which states that the container holds 1 cup of 2 servings. Does that mean 1/2 cup is considered in 1 serving all the time? Are 6 ounces the same as 1 cup? Yes, if its dry ingredients, no if its liquid. But this dish is not only grain, but has a lot of cheese in it as well. How much will I get when I order Mac & Cheese at a restaurant - and how much will I eat?

The Laws of Simplicity

Nutrition and specifically food portions can seem like a very complicated thing. But does it have to be? I have recently read The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda for some guidance. Written by a professor at MIT’s Media Lab, this book outlines how to achieve simplicity in the digital age. But it’s ‘laws’ are universal to all types of design and media.

1. Reduce - thoughtful reduction
2. Organize - makes things appear fewer
3. Time - savings in time feels like simplicity
4. Learn - knowledge makes things simpler
5. Differences - simplicity and complexity need each other
6. Context - peripheral of simplicity
7. Emotion - more emotions are better than less
8. Trust - trust simplicity
9. Failure - some things can’t be made simple
10. The One - subtract the obvious and add the meaningful

Maeda gives excellent examples of his theories that make you understand each law in the context of real life. Using things like the ipod, rhythm, and sushi he makes it easy to see how simplicity impacts our daily lives. I will definitely keep these laws with me as I begin my investigation into food portion and obesity. Visit the blog www.lawsofsimplicity.com for more information.

Government Recommendations

I am starting my research into the link between understanding food portions and obesity by first looking into the government's recommendations on nutrition . A Healthier You is a book published by the US Department of Health and Human Service that explains in plain language how the average person can eat healthier. All of the information in the book is based on the USDA Food Guide, otherwise known as the food pyramid. It explains various things including what is a calorie, how to read a food label, and even has a chart to help readers determine how many calories they should be consuming. There is also a long chapter on nutrients which goes into depth about food groups and what kinds of vitamins and minerals the body needs. There is practical advice as well, such as, “You could use up all your calories on a few high-calorie foods or drinks, but you will most likely not get the full range of nutrients your body needs. Healthy eating consists of mostly fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low fat/fat free milk and milk products; includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts; is low in saturated and trans fats, salt, and added sugars.”

I was pleasantly surprised by the suggestions on how to easily add fruits and vegetables to your diet. Having some fruit with breakfast, adding veggies to a sandwich for lunch, or having a salad as an appetizer are small things that everyone can do, and I believe are easy enough for those who typically don’t eat fruit or vegetables on a given day. I am doubtful though that a person would get their daily recommended amounts using these suggestions.

According to the government "the USDA Food Guide is not a weight loss diet, but an illustrative example of how to eat according to the Dietary Guidelines and shows a range of caloric needs for different people of ages and genders." Its importance is undeniable since the Dietary Guidelines form the basis for all federal food, nutrition education, and information programs. While it contains a lot of various and detailed information, I found the diagrams on what Americans were consuming (2001-2002 consumption data) very interesting. It shows that adults were not eating nearly enough fruits and vegetables, nor milk or milk products. We also ate too many enriched grains (as opposed to whole grains), solid fats, and added sugars. The data also related that Americans consume more calories than they need without meeting the recommended amount of nutrients. This last statement seems very obvious to me and is one of my reasons in investigating nutrition to begin with. There are a lot of critics out there about Dietary Guidelines specifically when it comes to politics and business which I will write more about on a later date.

Hypothesis Refined

HYPOTHESIS
If adults had a better understanding of the amount of food they were eating then there would be a decrease in the percentage of overweight and obese people in the U.S.

BACKGROUND
Obesity has been on the rise since the 1980s and recent studies show that almost two-thirds of American adults are overweight. People are not any less active then they were 20 years ago, but the one thing that has surely changed is how much they eat: Americans eat too much. For the past few decades restaurants have slowly been increasing their portions and even cookbooks have followed suit with the size of their ingredients listed. Sizes are now so out of proportion that the terms small, medium, and large are subjective, and many fast food restaurants have even discontinued their size small and added an extra large. Research studies show that is in our nature to eat what is in front of us regardless of how full we are, or even if the food is any good. Most Americans believe that what you eat is more important than how much, but as many nutritionists have explained the more calories you eat the more weight you gain.

Because of the growth of waistlines the country has food on its brain. For the past 18 years Parade magazine has conducted their “What America Eats” survey. This survey acts as a snapshot of what, where, and how American’s are eating and in the latest survey more women than men are cutting portion size (64% vs. 53%), reducing total calories (44% vs. 38%), eating smaller meals (44% vs. 32%) and substituting healthy alternatives (51% vs. 44%). This is evidence that Americans are getting the message that eating and health are connected and are changing their eating habits. The differences in the percentages of women and men could be a result of the stereotypical perceptions of the sexes and their appearance; women who take their weight very seriously is somehow more acceptable than men who do the same.

The change in eating behavior, specifically when it comes to food portions can be partially attributed to the coverage the subject has gotten in recent years. Many health agencies such as the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases have put out information on the subject. The latter has released several publications that explain the differences between portion and serving sizes and how to tell how big your portions are. The former has an online portion distortion quiz where users can compare food portions from 20 years ago to today and learn the amount of physical activity it will take to burn off the extra calories of today’s portions. Another contributor to the rise and hopefully fall of food portion is the food service industry.

The Prevention Institute, a nonprofit that addresses complex health and social issues, released From Wallet to Waistline, a report on the financial and caloric costs of upgrading to larger portions at retail food establishments. For a few more dollar or cents a customer can increase the size of their meal, such as the Big Gulp at 7-Eleven. Providing more food for less money is termed value marketing and has proven to be very profitable for food companies and is what they are steadily relying on. While this gives the customer the impression that they have gotten a deal, the larger portions contain more calories and encourage overeating. But some restaurants are sensing a change in what their customers want. The restaurant chains TGI Fridays and the Cheesecake Factory have small-portion options on their menus, and Applebees has a Weight Watchers endorsed section of their menu. This idea isn’t going away any time soon since a recent survey by Food Technology magazine states that 4 out of 10 restaurant chain chefs think portion size will be a new major trend.

Another element that needs to be considered is diets. Search for diet books on www.amazon.com and you’ll get 212,952 results. There is a different diet for every type person on the buffet line, and many individuals go on one diet after another to end up exactly where they started. People who are overweight are aware of the issue, but many feel powerless to change it, as evident in their online journals which are are filled with self-critical, negative words.While the science of nutrition is always changing and many diets go in and out of fashion, portion control is the most recommended by nutritionists and has been coined the no-diet diet. Meaning it is the easiest and most assured way of losing and maintaining a healthy weight for life.

References
- Young, Lisa R., Ph.D., R.D. The Portion Teller Plan. Morgan Road Books, 2005. pp.5
- Wansink, Brian, Ph.D. Mindless Eating. Bantam Dell, 2006. pp 15
- Hales, Dianne. “We’re Changing The Way We Eat.” Parade magazine,Nov. 12, 2006
- Just Enough For You. Online. Oct. 8, 2007. [http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/just_enough.htm]
- Portion Distortion. Online. Oct. 8, 2007. [http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/portion/]
- From Wallet to Waistline: The Hidden Costs of Super Sizing. Online. Oct. 8, 2007 [http://www.preventioninstitute.org/portionsizerept.html]
- Stein, Joel. “Big Chain Restaurants’ New Small Portions.” Time magazine, May 10, 2007