Our Supersized Life

I read a great article in the Globe and Mail titled Supersized servings, supersized people that had me nodding my head in agreement.

So much is said about our National Food Guide and its guidance for healthy living, but the truth is the guide is a joke. It is backed by every "big" industry you can think of. The furthest thing it accomplishes is helping us eat healthier. In the article it talks about how following the food guide recommendations will only help you gain weight, due to the number of recommended servings. As a side note it also doesn't truly educate a reader about food.

But the real kicker in the struggle against obesity is serving size. Our World has become this sea of massive plates, up-sized fries, cups of soda large enough to drown in and our brains have come to understand that no matter how much we are served it is a regular serving. From the article I learned studies have shown

"Statistics Canada estimates we are consuming nearly 20 per cent more calories each day than we did 15 years ago because of bigger portions."

The same is true in the USA,

"According to research in the United States, portion sizes have grown dramatically over the past 20 years. Two decades ago, a coffee-shop muffin weighed in at 2.5 ounces (71 grams) and had 210 calories. Today, the average muffin weighs four ounces (113 grams) and delivers as much as 500 calories."

This is a significant increase that has created a very difficult pattern to break. It is socially acceptable for one person to eat an amount of food equal to 3+ servings! I think the biggest problem is our inability to only eat what we need as opposed to eating as much as we THINK we need.

The supersized foods of our World are loaded with fat, sugar and sodium. It isn't any wonder why we struggle with obesity on this continent. The article went through some very good tips to try and get a handle on serving control. I also think the ideas about listening to your stomach and to stop eating when you are signaled by the stomach, combined with only eating when you are hungry the portioning and serving sizes go down naturally. Our stomaches are only so big, sure they will expand to fit all the extra stuff you force in there, like those new Glad stretchy garbage bags, but it isn't good for you.

Scale down the servings and the portion sizes to reap the benefits of your hard work at being healthier. Listen to your body, it won't ask for more calories than you can burn. It is fined tuned machine that knows when it needs more fuel and when you can stop providing it. Remember your stomach CANNOT see the size of your plate or how much food you have left, all it knows is you have filled it to capacity...so put down the knife, the fork and BACK AWAY from the table!!

My Two Cents

Jamie