Portion Sizes, Too Much?

Restaurants, both sit-down and fast food, prepare meals with portion sizes larger than needed for a healthy diet. We as Americans tend to give in to the size and eat more than we should. With our busy lifestyles, it is hard to stop and think if what we eat is what we should eat.

A Six Dollar Burger at Carl’s Jr. has 1070 calories. By comparison, a half pound hamburger made at home has an average of around 700 calories. Is the difference in the sauce, in the spices, in the marinade, or in the portion size? The meat portions are the same for both burgers, so the portion size of the condiments would have to make up the difference.

Another surprise to me was the calories in the simple Chinese fast food at Panda Express. A two entrée meal, consisting of Chow Mein, Grilled Mandarin Chicken, and Beijing Beef, added up to just over 1000 calories. Again, if the restaurant used portion sizes more appropriate to recommended calorie count, the meal could have been considerably less loaded with excess calories. I still have to take the blame on consuming the excessive portions, but would I have been satisfied with a smaller portion?

Fast food is not the culprit, even sit-down family dining promotes larger portion sizes than required for a healthy diet. For Father’s Day, my family took me to lunch at Red Robin. I had a Whiskey River BBQ Cheeseburger with fries. The real surprise came in the 1339 calories packed into the meal. I made the choice to eat the entire meal, but I know I would have been full if the meal was one third the size. So, Red Robin is just as guilty for excessive portion sizes.

After stepping back and looking at my eating habits, I feel the food industry is taking advantage of me and the rest of the American that are not familiar with proper portion sizes. Is it due to the lack of education? Or is it just that we as Americans don’t take the time to stop and think about what we eat? It is too easy to eat what is put in front of us. Even if the portion is too big we eat it because it is the portion given. I know I will be more conscience of what and how much I eat.