Unpopular Culture: Portion Sizes in Restaurants

For this assignment, I tried to think of an aspect of popular culture that reflects negatively on most of us, not just certain demographics. Being that the majority of Americans eat at both chain restaurants and fast-food restaurants I decided to look at the impact of portion sizes on our health, and more specifically relating to the obesity epidemic. First, I'd like to establish that this is a problem. More than 80% of Americans eat outside of the home at least once a week. The number of restaurants in America increased by 75% between 1977 and 1991. According to the U.S. Surgeon General in 2003, our country is facing an obesity epidemic. In that year, nearly two out of every three Americans were overweight or obese and over 300,000 Americans died that year from illnesses related to being overweight or obese. Since the 1960's the number of obese children has tripled. There is overwhelming evidence that portion sizes in restaurants are, in part, to blame.

Beginning with the CDC there have been studies that show Americans are incapable of determining variances in portion size. They found that the more food we are presented with, the more we eat, often without being aware the portion size changed or that the amount of food we ate changed. This lack of awareness surrounding portion sizes ensures we eat more food and therefore consume more calories when presented with larger portions. And restaurants are presenting Americans with larger and larger portions.
- The average restaurant meal has up to 4 times as many calories as a meal made at home.
- In 1950, the average fast food burger was 2.8 ounces and 202 calories. That same burger in 2004 was 4.3 ounces and 310 calories (see image, "The New (Ab)Normal".

- A pasta portion in the 1950's was 1.5 cups. In 2004 it varied from 3 to 5 cups.

Americans also tend to mix up portion size with serving size. Serving size is the dietary guidelines for the amount of food that should be consumed in one meal. Portion size is the amount of food served to you by a restaurant or the amount provided in a container. We tend to assume the portion size is equivalent to a serving size but this is far from true. A study found that "A whopping 96% of America's chain restaurant entrees fell outside the range of the USDA's recommendations for fat, saturated fat, and sodium per meal...". Those recommendations are, per meal: 676 calories, 32 grams (g) of fat with no more than 12 g of that being saturated fat, and no more than 767 milligrams (mg) of sodium. Let's take a look at actual restaurant entrees.

While most cities provide hundreds, if not thousands of dining options, let's focus on the most popular restaurant chains. According to Forbes Magazine, in 2011 the most popular restaurant chains were (in order) The Cheesecake Factory, Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, P.F. Chang's, and Carraba's Italian Grill. The Cheesecake Factory offers a dish called pasta carbonara with chicken. This meal consists of 2,290 calories (more than a whole day's worth), 81 g of saturated fat, and 1,630 mg of sodium. Texas Roadhouse offers a 12 oz. prime rib with 1034 calories and 89 g of fat. Olive Garden has on their menu a Tour of Italy. This tour will cost you 1490 calories, 74 g of fat, 33 g saturated fat, and 3,830 mg of sodium. P.F. Chang's Crispy Honey Chicken has 1,180 calories, 30 g of fat, and 1,210 mg of sodium. And that's a lunch portion. Think a salad is a better way to go? Not at Carraba's Italian Grill. Their Insalata Johnny Roco seems good with 320 calories and 14 g of fat. But this salad contains 1800 mg of sodium, more than the TOTAL recommended daily amount.

Some Americans would argue that increased portion sizes don't matter all that much. But just an extra 10 calories per day can equal a pound of weight gain in a year. Make that 100 extra calories per day and that's 10 pounds od weight gain in a year. Looking at the extra portion sizes this way makes it clear the impact portion size has on the overall obesity rate.