Please Downsize My Plate !
One of the first things that stuck my mind when I left France in 1998 for United States to start an 18 months post-doctoral internship at Hershey College of Medicine (Penn State University, PA), was the size of the plate that my first diner was on. And I’m not talking about the amount of food it contained. Of course, it was delicious but I felt with the uncomfortable feeling of eating too much. Furthermore, I felt guilty about all the leftovers on the plate because I knew they would be thrown away and there were surely hungry people in this country.
The hidden 1200 kcal !
Since that time many efforts have already been made to try to change the slope of the overweight and obesity curves. Although it is believed that daily caloric intake should be around 2,500 kcal for moderately active men and high active women, it has been estimated that the average American ingests 3,748 kcal per day.
In fact, this excessive portion intake in the American population might come from eating more because the environment is offering more than necessary. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and its Obesity Education Initiative this “portion distortion” has grown in size and energy in the last twenty years at a horrific trend. The size of a bagel has doubled and the weight of French fries portion has tripled!
If you add up all these distortions, it is no surprise that this additional 1,200 kcal would be quite hard to eliminate by physical activity since it corresponds to about 4 hours of cycling …. and result in gaining weight and all the complications that are associated.
Don’t blame it on me !
On one hand, as a Nutritionist, I was quite shocked to discover during my stay in the US, that restaurants had smaller plates for lunch than for dinner. It is total nutritional, and surely uneconomical, nonsense. One should expect quite the opposite since after diner we are usually not supposed to have intense activity.
On the other hand as a French, I couldn’t imagine finishing all the food on my dinner plate since in France they are about 15% smaller, i.e. 9.5 to 10.5 inches compare to 10.5 up to 12 inches in diameter and France is considered to have among the lowest rates of obesity in industrialized countries. Interestingly, a French-American scientific collaboration have shown in 2003 that this difference is also found in the net weight of the lunch menu which was 277 g for France and 346 g for United States. Paradoxically, they found that French took longer time to have their meal (22 mins) than American (14 mins) including when eating fast foods and we already know that the eating duration is positively correlated to satiation.
Indeed, the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) has issued in 2007 the revised version of the American Plate that includes more low calories food and a significant reduction of animal proteins. Not to mention what unnatural molecules are found in meat and other food products, the reduction of portion was not accompanied by a recommendation of reduction in dish sizes resulting in the same visual perception of a plate and what size and height it should have.
In a scientific study published in the Obesity Research Journal in that same year (2007), Clemson and Penn State University scientists have studied who establishes restaurant portion sizes and factors that influence these decisions and examined this in a survey that included 300 chefs their opinions regarding portion size. Executive chefs were identified as being primarily responsible for establishing portion sizes served in restaurants and 76% of them thought that they served “regular” portions, the actual portions of steak and pasta they reported serving were 2 to 4 times larger than serving sizes recommended by the U.S government.
It’s not so easy to just blame overweight and obese people when there are numerous accomplices in this nutritional crime.
Play the plate
I believe education can make a huge difference in our portion size problem, especially for children, by creating health games and educational activities that might help better consider regular or normal proportions and use the corresponding dishware to achieve good and balanced intake. In fact, some quizzes or recommendations are available on the Net to draw attention on the portion distortion effects.
On the games side, many are found to address the right food balance but few if any were found to specifically address the problem of size portion and to educate kids on the space and time dimension of portion.
Considering the above-mentioned scientific articles, there is room for such computer and video games that can address specifically the visual perception of a normal or adapted food portion and certainly the duration aspects of eating.
Small is beautiful
In conclusion, instead of only focusing on the public to manage its problems with the help of social and healthcare community, strong incentives could also be issued toward the food industry and dishware industrials to change their habits and products, and participate to this worldwide challenge of war against obesity.
For example, a reduction of the dinner plate size would normally result in :
- lowering the price of menu and make it accessible to more people
- lowering the amount of leftover food that has to be thrown way
- lowering the price of house dishware
- lowering the generated pollution on non-used and discarded material
- changing the size perception of portions
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This is a very informative article. I directly work on a team, Mindless Products, LLC. with Dr. Brian Wansink who accepted a Presidential invite to assist in the creation of the new U.S Food Pyramid. Dr. Wansink is the Director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University. This lab is a major contributor to “The Small Plate Movement” – a movement encompassing academia, government, media, and industry helping people lose weight promoting a healthier lifestyle simply by reducing the size of their dinnerware.
Dr. Brian Wansink worked very closely with the Mindless Team to design the ideal dinnerware, called Thinware,™ taking into account the size, shape, color, dimensions, and quality encouraging smaller food portions while leaving a person feeling completely satiated.
Very interesting research was done by Dr. Wansink which is described in his book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think” The book is entertaining and funny and is the premise of our companies, http://www.mindlessproducts.com and our weight loss plan http://www.mindlessmethod.com.
“Change your plate first. Change your habits later.”-Dr. Brian Wansink.
@Mary – I was not familiar with Dr. Wansink and his work; fascinating stuff. The Pillivuyt Divided Plate in particular caught my eye. What an excellent (and easy) way to learn portion size. 22% less food at dinner just by using different dinnerware. Amazing! It makes complete sense that even plate design and color would make a difference in appetite. This principle is used for wall paint in healthcare facilities and schools across the country. Thank you so much for sharing this great resource.
Nice article! You may also want to check out my book The Portion Teller Plan and my NYU academic research. I have tracked the history of US portion sizes increasing and its direct correlation to US obesity rates. A scary eye opener!!
@Mary – Thanks for your comment. I had also a look at your great work. I knew Dr. Wansink major contributions and in particular the small plate movement and my purpose was to put into perspective with other countries to support this idea.
Obviously, the solution might encompass the size of the portion as suggested by your work. As for children, a lot of work could be done using games to have them appreciate the time of eating while being satiated.
@Lisa – Nice and impressive work ! I was particular interested in your article about the Fast Food industry responses to this “portion drift”. Coincidentally, the only company that has accepted at least to make a substantial move toward size and calories reduction is the only one present in France which has a lower obesity rate.
I’ll be honored to further discuss these points with you. My email is :
mselamnia @ gmail . com
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