I found this at MSN.com and I thought it was very interesting...

The average portion size in Paris was 25% smaller than in Philadelphia.

Chinese restaurants in Philly served meals that were 72% bigger than Parisian Chinese restaurants.

They looked at foods sold in supermarkets:

A candy bar in Philadelphia was 41% larger than the same candy bar sold in Paris.

A soft drink was 52% larger, and a hot dog was 63% larger.

A carton of yogurt was 82% larger.


No wonder Americans are so huge. 30% are obese, compared to 7% of French. Let's move to France!

I heard this on NPR and was pretty horrified. I have to say that I have fallen into the trap of "if I'm going to pay all this money for a restaurant meal, there had better be a lot of food." It's "quantity" thinking vs. "quality" thinking.

We also eat so much faster than Europeans, which I think tends to make us eat more.

Yes, I also read that the average American fast food meal lasts 14 minutes, while the average French fast food meal lasts 22 minutes. Crazy.

I think servings that are too large are a big problem. I hate throwing away food, really hate it. Now when my husband orders maccas upsize I take it home for the dogs. Not a complete waste then. ;D

I think Europeans are also used to a lot more walking than we are here. For example they don't have the big supermarkets like we have (well not everywhere). They'll have all the little shops and you walk around and go shopping or go to a farmer's market. You have to think that they have so much less room than we do so anywhere you want to go you probably don't have to drive all that much. Somedays it feels like I am in the car half the time when I am running errands. As well I don't think they have the bad habit of eating in front of the tv like we do. They seem to be more likely to have long meals at the dinner table where they sit and talk with the family unlike North Americans who inhale their food like they will never eat again and rush off to do something else.

Very true, all of this! And A/C is not something common in Europe, either, so people are outside more during the day to avoid the stifling heat of indoors.

I fall into the "most for the money" mentality; in this country it is so easy to do!

I resemble that remark. While I'm slowly moving away from that mentality, I find I'm falling for another -- I'm too "cheap" to throw away food. It really bothers me when I get the smallest portion available and it's still two portions, and I have no way to preserve the other half. I HATE throwing away perfectly good food.

The other day I got a tuna sandwich from our cafeteria and could only eat half of it. The other half is sitting in the frig at work. I have NO idea if it's even edible, but I couldn't throw it away. And when I'm travelling and don't have the luxury of a frig, I have no choice but to dump it or eat it. /sigh

Slightly off-topic...I thought I'd get e-mail notifications when there were replies on threads in which I'd posted. I'm plum confused -- how do I make sure I don't miss anything. I'm nosy! If someone can help, private message me, if you would.