Portion sizes (rant)

[Kimmyt]

OK, so this is a bit inspired by the Fish thread, because I was reading it the other day and I just got to craving tilapia. So yesterday I went to the store to get some for dinner.

I was cooking for myself since the house is all mine for the next 6 mos while the Boy is in CO for work. I really wanted a nice healthy meal, so I was planning on making some fish, rice and a bunch of asparagus.

So I went to the store and bought just one tilapia filet. The guy behind the counter was like, 'well, these are pretty small, so maybe you want more than that'. I told him it was ok, one was fine. Since it was just me I was cooking for I didn't need multiple filets (and I'm not very big to begin with). OK, so they were on the small side of all the filets for sale, but to my eyes they were perfect for a serving size (and a lovely $1.30 in price!), and plus I would be eating lots of yummy asparagus and rice.

Then as I was leaving the counter person was like, 'well thats a nice alternative to a meal'. I was so pissed off.

Because I felt like he was calling me anorexic or something, and here I am just eating healthy. I just feel like, especially in some regions of America, there is just this huge focus on quantity of food. If you eat less than a pound of meat in a sitting or something, people look at you like you're crazy.

I mean, most restaurants.... don't get me started! I enjoy to eat out as much as the next person, in fact I love it. And if I'm at a good restaurant, I'll get appys and entrees and desserts and probably go home stuffed when I shouldn't, but what normal person needs to eat a 20 oz. steak? I mean, even after I had my dinner I was flipping through channels and got caught by The Biggest Loser on tv and my mind kind of made the connection between all these obese people in America, and these huge serving sizes at our restaurants. Because when I was little we had a 'clean your plate' mentality, and now as an adult I find it hard to leave leftovers (especially those I've paid for) on my plate, though mostly I will take them home if they will be good for lunch the next day.

It's very frustrating, you know?

K.

[CyclChyk]

See, this is where I usually get myself in trouble cuz I would have said something to the fellow to put him in his place. Who the heck does he think he is?? His job is to get you what you ask for and nothing else.

I think your rant is justified.

[limewave]

Kimm--totally understand. It is frustrating, like its illegal to try and eat healthy. For lunch the other day I had an apple with cheddar cheese slice and some trail mix. It was really good, but my cubicle neighbors made comments about how I was eating like a squirrel. And, when I go to restaurants and I only eat 1/3 or 1/2 of what's on the plate, I always get asked if there was something wrong with it. Yes, it was a TON of food. Of course I don't say that, I always feel like I have to overly compliment the chef to assuage them "really, it was great! Loved it! . . . just not that hungry" I say sheepishly. And I wonder if I get these compliments because I'm not so small and they are surprised I haven't scarfed the plate.

[jobob]

um.... fish is perishable and perhaps he was just hoping to sell more if it? That's his job, after all. Just sayin'.

[Geonz]

"Too bad healthy thinking is so "alternative' around here... Maybe I need to find a nicer alternative for shopping."

[mimitabby]

I buy the bigger cut of fish and then eat the leftovers for lunch.
the same at a restaurant.
they feed me enough for 3 meals, I take it home with me and have 2 lunches out of it.

At work, i am trapped for 8 hours and can't leave. I need a good lunch of leftovers 5 days a week.


I can't stand the portion sizes either, but no one can guilt trip me into eating
more than i want!

[emily_in_nc]

For lunch the other day I had an apple with cheddar cheese slice and some trail mix. It was really good, but my cubicle neighbors made comments about how I was eating like a squirrel.

They're just feeling guilty about their own eating habits so are trying to make you feel bad about your healthy ones.... When they say stuff like that, just smile inwardly and think about how much healthier you are than them.

Emily

[solveig]

One of my favorite rant topics, too!

What gets me is that people feel comfortable critiquing my food choices or body size as a slim person, where they'd never do that if I was overweight. (And I know this, because I spent most of my life overweight!) At a recent wedding reception, a woman I peripherally know and hadn't seen for a couple years said, "Hi! Good to see you! You're too thin." So I could have responded, "Great to see you too! And you're still too fat." She would've been really offended - and with good reason, because I would've been totally out of line.

This happens all the time - and I usually end up saying something like, "Well, I feel healthy..." or something like that. But it always makes me feel uncomfortable...

We need to give - and seek - acceptance and friendship and respect as PEOPLE, not just bodies or images. And that's easy to lose sight of in this image-conscious society.

Stepping off soapbox...

[tygab]

I find it very disturbing that we modern humans are so disconnected from the food generation process, myself included, though I am attempting to relearn what I can.

We don't know how what we're eating will affect us, we don't know how to eat small portions, we don't know where our food comes from, we don't know what's in it and how it came to be, and we don't know how to pick/prepare healthy food even if such food is available to us.

>>Watching tv, on now, a commercial for a subway sandwich chain where the 'good' sandwich is piled with meat, and the 'bad' sandwich is mocked by supposedly unbiased random people as not having enough meat which surely wouldn't be what they choose. And the commentors are almost all big heavy guys.<<

Here's an interesting portion size analysis from a few years ago:

http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/ftoct02.htm

I feel as though those of us who exercise and pay some attention to what we eat are not only in the minority, we are considered quite odd by those who do not!

an estimated 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years are overweight

from the CDC health stats page.

This from CNN back in Sept:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/06....ap/index.html

Fernstrom, who was not involved in the study, said as portions have gotten larger, it has been harder for people to estimate what a standard portion should be. The amount people should eat seems puny compared to the mounds of food we have become used to seeing on our plates, she said.

"This is showing human foibles. It's hard to estimate food. And it's really hard to estimate huge portions," Fernstrom said.

Fernstrom suggests people eat smaller portions, use a smaller plate so the meal looks larger, and downsize -- not super-size --meals when they eat out.

I know, I'm talking to the wrong audience here... but this is a problem!

[DarcyInOregon]

And what is with all of the fried chicken products being created and produced in the last few years? I don't get it. The food producers are taking chicken, which is quite healthy when it is grilled, baked or broiled, and creating dozens of new ways to make it unhealthy, invovling changing the shape, coating it, frying it, saucing it, and so on. Go to a restaurant and look at the entree salads, and the chicken on the salads are all coated and deep fat fried. It isn't just that portions are getting bigger, but the food producers are actively trying to put more unhealthy calories into the food by creating new ways to add fat and salt to regular food, and then we see the resulting commercials on television.

Yes, that sandwich commercial is the worse, the one with the meat piled up. A portion size in a sandwich is 1-3 ounces, depending on what else is in the sandwich, not piled up inches thick.

The original poster mentioned the show "The Biggest Loser." I like that show because it shows how the overweight people got heavy, mostly for some of the reasons discussed in this thread, and I think it is important for people to understand how they got overweight. A person can't lose weight permanently until they understand how and why their body got big and make the permanent life-time behavior changes that will allow them to successfully lose the excess pounds. As the participants on the show are taught basic nutrition and exercise, so do the viewers in the television audience learn nutrition and exercise, and that is a good thing. I think the show is positive and affirming, and hopefully gives hope to many people to learn proper heart healthy nutrition and exercise behaviors.

One thing that many people don't know as they flounder around trying to learn about nutrition is that almost every hospital in North America has a three-month program teaching heart healthy nutrition to anybody who signs up for the class. A person's health insurance will pay for the fees if the doctor says it is ok, like if a person has hypertension, or insulin insensitivity, or is overweight, or if there is a dependant person in the household with similar problams. If not, pay the fees and go through the course anyway. These classes are not diet programs, but instead are designed to teach people how to be healthy with their nutrition and exercise, and how to recognize that measuring their cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar can be even more important indicators of their overall health than their weight.

If a person eats and exercises so as to keep their cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar as healthy as possible, then eventually a lot of the excess body fat will burn off until the body reaches a fat/muscle/bone density ratio that is appropriate for that person's sex, age and activity level. So what if the time line is years, and not months. It is better than dying decades early because your body is clogged with cholesterol. For the record, I had two friends die in the last year because their bodies were so clogged with cholesterol the doctors couldn't even do a bypass surgery. Both individuals had a total cholesterol of around 220, and were not even on a statin drug. When I told them repeatedly that their cholesterol was too high, they said oh no, that 220 was a good number. Huh? And now they are dead.

Darcy