The worst example I've seen of this is a caramel apple on a stick. A serving size is half an apple?? On a stick?? When was the last time you shared anything on a stick? LOL!
I found some great old restaurant ware at an auction several months back and we use it now as our daily dinnerware. Everything is smaller than you find today - but it all fits actual serving size portions.
In the "old days" when I was a kid, we didn't eat the huge servings that people expect now. If we were served what is called a muffin now, we'd never have thought of eating the whole thing. We worked a lot harder, too, and didn't sit so much so we burned off what we ate. A huge muffin is not a serving. A 2 or 3 patty burger is not a serving. It's just ime we wake up and realize we are eating way more than our way of life can burn off and go back to smaller portions. The first thing I do in a restaurant is ask for a to go box and then I order my dinner. I put half, or more, of it aside to eat another day. And I'm one of the wierdo's who measures out a half cup of ice cream (4 servings per small container) and enjoy it.
Serving sizes baffle me - I've never understood why Pop Tarts are packaged in sets of 2, but the serving is only 1. Won't the other one go stale? Why aren't they individually packaged?
Here in the uk, the law seems to be that cals etc are given per hundred grammes - regardless of what the product is. Often a serving size or a single item is also given but today I bought some extra special spelt crackers in a health shop.
The cals per 100g was given.
The total pkg weight was given, 200g.
So far so good - but there were 7 crackers in the pkg.
Of course I Can work it out - but doing either (x*2)/7 or (x/3.5) when x = the cals per 100g don't trip off my brain automatically.
Our society was hit with so many changes at once. The obesity epidemic has really only been around for the past 25 years or so.
As previously stated, we don't move enough anymore. We didn't have a car when I grew up. We lived in a small town and walked everywhere. My Mom didn't drive. We walked or rode our bikes to school. We played outside all summer long and only came in to woof down a quick sandwich and back outside we'd go until dark.
We didn't have remote controls for everything or garage door openers or elevators, we took the stairs. We each ate a serving of whatever we had for dinner, and most always had dessert (which was jello or pudding in a small cup).
Also, soft drinks were a luxury and we only had them as a treat once or twice A YEAR! No kidding.
We would go to McDonald's twice a year (in a neighboring town, when we went to the doctor). We would get a hamburger, small fries and a small drink. It was also considered a treat, not something you did every day.
I remember that I loved to go to my friend's house because they had a freezer full of junk food and they watched TV day and night. They were also all overweight for standards at that time. They were the rarity though. They probably weren't even overweight by today's standards.
It's so easy to see what has gone wrong, and truly, wouldn't take that long to turn it around if everyone would get on board. WISHFUL THINKING.
I was shocked and mortified by looking at the nutrition facts for Uno's and some other chain restaurants. My husband wanted to order dinner so I was looking for someplace I could find something to fit in my weight watchers points...to think I used to eat some of those things.
At least Applebees has some okay healthier choices.
Try The Cheesecake Factory - woooo boy, you think Uno's is bad? Cheesecake Factory's kids macaroni & cheese plate has over 1K calories - for a KIDS meal. Seriously? And some of the desserts are just downright outrageous.
The worst example I've seen of this is a caramel apple on a stick. A serving size is half an apple?? On a stick?? When was the last time you shared anything on a stick? LOL!
A few years ago, my mom had some caramel apples that she bought. We shared an apple and ate 1/4 of it each. The stick is useful for dipping.
I know, right? Just tell me the calories for the whole stinking muffin. Don't try to make it more attractive than it is. Same with those little tubs of ice cream...how many people really divide them into 4 or 5 servings? Maybe 2 but that's about it in my world.
I do but I also calculate out the calories for the entire thing just so I know how many calories I'd be eating total. "Hmm it is a treat, I'd get 3 or 4 servings from it, it'll cost me xx per serving, yyy total"
Oh and my funny realization was many years ago before I lost weight. I wanted to buy a pot pie to eat for dinner. I looked at the frozen pot pies in the grocery store, it was 1200 calories for the pot pie. And the box wasn't even that big.
This is why I take the time to cook the vast majority of my meals at home.
I get so much food at home for so few calories. The taste? Scrumptious.
It's like they sprinkle *extra calorie sauce* on all restaurant meals. Some of these foods are just so caloric, it would almost seem as if there is no other explanation.
Robin, if by "extra calorie sauce" you mean "copious amounts of oil and butter", you'd be correct.
Even the heavy cream in restaurants is higher fat than heavy cream from stores..."double cream", they call it. It's why those cream soups in restaurants are so much creamier than you can achieve at home (too creamy in my opinion...I hate taking a bite of soup and feeling the oil slick of too much cream spread across my tongue).
And they cover the extra calorie sauce with a sodium wash, and then sprinkle the whole thing with cheese.
And infuse it with crushed Halavah (the most calorie dense food I've ever heard of).
What's even scarier to me, is that I never, ever gave a second thought to all of those calories I was ingesting, even if I didn't realize they were *that* high, I knew they were plenty high.
