Wednesday, October 27, 1999
Just how much are you eating?
BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Just for a single day, the folks at the American Institute for Cancer Research want you to “eyeball” your food. You might be surprised at how much you're eating.
ACIR nutritionists say there's a direct link between growing obesity in the U.S. and the amount of food Americans consume. Part of that, they speculate, is because nutrition labels give information for single-serving portions far smaller than most people eat.
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HAMBURGER HELPER
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A typical fast-food double cheeseburger contains:
• 500-650 calories (about one-fifth to one-sixth of an average man's daily requirement).
• 28 grams of fat and 130-135mg. of cholesterol (almost one half of a day's cholesterol limit for most people).
• 40 grams of protein (nearly a full day's worth for an average girl or woman).
• 1,000-1,500 mg. of salt (about one-half of a day's recommended upper limit).
Source: The Complete Book of Food Counts (Dell; $7.50) by Corrine Netzer.
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“Portion sizes are getting bigger, and Americans are getting fatter,” says dietitian Melanie Polk, ACIR's director of nutrition education. “The two trends are related.”
She says studies indicate that most Americans underestimate by 25 percent the number of calories they consume each day, a factor that leads to “unconscious” eating and obesity, now thought to affect more than half of Americans.
Being overweight is linked to higher risks of cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis and gallbladder disease.
So just for a day, try this:
• Check the serving size listed on a particular food's label, measure out that amount of food and put it on a clean plate. Take a mental snapshot of what a single serving is, and remember it.
• Repeat the procedure for every meal or snack that day.
For example, a single serving of potato chips is 1 ounce, or about 18 chips. Who eats just 18 chips?
A single serving of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish cheese crackers is 55 crackers, yet a regular package contains six servings.
An ice cream serving? Half a cup.
Other advice: share portions at restaurants, just say no to fast-food “supersizing” offers, and opt for smaller portions instead of jumbo foods, sandwiches and servings.
“What's really happening here is that, as a nation, we've forgotten when to say "when,' ” Ms. Polk says. “The serving size is a fundamental concept of everyday nutrition, and we've slowly let ourselves lose sight of it.”
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