Portion Sizes Growing Out of Control - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), April, 2000

Nutrition experts with the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) are calling for people to take a day to measure the serving sizes of their favorite foods. Making time to "eyeball" individual serving amounts, they maintain, reveals a widening gap between the servings listed on food labels and the helpings most Americans actually consume.

"Portion sizes are getting bigger, and Americans are getting fatter," cautions Melanie Polk, the Institute's Director of Nutrition Education. "The two trends are related. Over the past few decades, the amount of food we consume has steadily increased. That's why AICR is asking people to `size up' how much they're really eating over the course of a day."

According to clinical studies, Americans underestimate the amount of calories they consume each day by as much as 25%. AICR believes that such "unconscious eating" helps to explain why more Americans than ever--55%--are considered overweight. This means those individuals are at increased risk for such obesity-related ailments as cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, and osteoarthritis.

Changes in the American marketplace have spurred the growth in portion size. Fast food chains have competed for consumer dollars by inflating their serving sizes. Modestly sized bagels and muffins have disappeared from American cafes, replaced by creations three or four times their size. Many restaurants are using larger plates laden with more food to assure customers they are getting their money's worth.

For a single day, AICR urges consumers to follow these quick, simple steps at each meal: First, check the serving size listed on the "Nutrition Facts" food label and fill a measuring spoon or cup with that amount. Next, empty the food onto a plate. At this point, they should make a mental snapshot of what they see, paying particular attention to how much of the plate is covered. By repeating this procedure at each meal prepared that day, consumers will quickly learn what a single serving of many different foods really looks like.

"More people are reading food labels today, and that's encouraging," notes Polk. "But without knowing how big a serving size really is, the nutritional information listed on labels can't be put into context, and is not particularly useful. For example, a typical serving of low-fat granola contains around 220 calories and three grams of fat. What most people don't notice, however, is that the serving size listed is usually only two-thirds of a cup. So, if they pour themselves a typical bowl of cereal, they could be getting two, three, even four times more calories and fat than they realize."

Nutritionists stress that the serving size amounts on food labels are not to be considered suggested servings. They are simply the units of measure used by food,manufacturers to derive nutritional information like calories, fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, and minerals. As such, the concept of serving size is central to discussions of balanced diet and weight management.

"Of course, different people have different caloric needs, and it may well be that they require more than one `serving' of a given food at a meal," Polk emphasizes. "They may even continue to load up on favorite foods once in a while. After using the `eyeball method,' however, they'll be fully aware that they are doing so, and that's important."