Portion Distortion

Recently over my spring break from school I gave a presentation at one of my cousin's school about portion distortion and portion sizes. First I talked to the teachers at their morning meeting about how portion sizes have almost doubled in size over the past 20 years, then later, I talked in her classroom about the importance of eating breakfast every morning to ensure we have enough energy to learn and work hard. For my first, actual nutrition presentation as a student and a future dietitian, it went great! The adults seemed to really enjoy it and the students really learned the importance of the most important meal of the day.

Like I said, portion sizes have doubled and almost tripled in the past twenty years! No wonder so many Americans are considered overweight or obese. 58% of Americans eat out or grab a meal on the go at least once a week. And now, for the first time ever, we are spending more money at restaurants and fast food joints than in grocery stores!  The average person needs about 2000 calories a day to perform daily bodily functions, extracurricular activities and just to live. However, we eat on average about 3500 calories a day. No wonder we are such a large country. Daily caloric needs are specific to each person, but are really around 2000 calories. When we eat an excess of 500 calories a day, we gain about a pound a week. With eating 1500 extra calories a day, that adds up to 3 pounds a week! Wow!
Here are some examples of how big one portion size is considered today:
- One bagel is equal to 4 slices of bread
- The standard restaurant plate of food has 2 servings on it
- Steaks served at restaurants are actually 4-6 times the size of one serving of steak
- Restaurant portion of baked ziti is equivalent to about 3 servings of pasta
- A bakery muffin is equal to 6-8 slices of bread
- One pint of orange juice is equivalent to 3 fruit servings

With the kids I talked about the importance of eating breakfast. I had 3 sample breakfasts bags that I showed the kids (one empty signifying the 1/3 of kids who don't eat breakfast every day, one with junk food for the 1/3 of kids who do not eat a nutritious breakfast, and a nutritious and wholesome breakfast for the 1/3 of kids who do eat it), and asked what they thought about each breakfast bag. They learned that if we do not eat a proper breakfast, they will feel tried, sluggish and unfocused by the time lunch comes around. The kids were able to tell me what kind of foods belong in each food group and what they do to be healthy! This is was such a fun experience and really fit into the theme of national breakfast week last week!