by Dr. Charles Alonzo Peters
I know I’m dating myself, but I remember the days when quenching your thirst meant going to the Coke machine, inserting your money, and then listening as a can of soda slid down the inside of the machine to be dispensed below.
And that 12 ounce aluminum can of soda did the job.
Think about this for a second. Most vending machines now dispense 20 ounce bottles of soda. Tell me then, since when did we start needing those extra eight ounces?
All around us portion sizes are exploding. Big Gulps (32 oz) have given way to the Super Big Gulps (44oz) and the Double Big Gulps (64oz). Bagels have grown twice as large. Our french fries have been super-sized and our Big Macs have given way to even larger Big Macs.
And the trend is occurring at home as well. Our plates and cups are growing. As a result, we’re serving more and eating more at the dinner table.
According to Alex Bogusky, author of The 9-inch “Diet,” Americans ate 300 pounds more food in 2000 than they did in 1970. This is in large part due to the fact that dinner plates have grown from the 9-inch size to the 12-inch size so common today.
Now the difference in plate sizes may not sound that significant, until you realize that simply switching from a 10 inch plate to a 12 inch plate easily results in 22% more calories being served.
No wonder we’re dealing with an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Portion distortion is literally killing us.
What does this have to do with personal finance? Simple. One of the easiest ways to keep more cash in your pocket is to reduce the amount of food you serve. Do this by using smaller dinner plates.
Won’t we just feel hungry by time we finish eating off a small plate? Won’t we just go back for seconds?
Well just like with the 12 oz can of Coke, meals served on smaller 10-inch plates were more than enough to satisfy the appetites of Americans back in the 90s. And back then we were able to sit down in theater and airline seats with ease.
As food psychologist Dr Brian Wansink notes, Americans eat far past the point of having satisfied our hunger. Wansink, who’s authored the book Mindless Eating, suggests that, more than our hunger, visual cues and consumption “norms” guide how much food we eat.
A smaller plate movement has even grown in order to get Americans to switch from 12 inch dinner plates back to 10 inch plates. “After you drop off your platter-size dinner plates off at the Goodwill, pick up a nice set of mid-size plates you can be proud of,” advises Wansink.
Who knew the key to spending less on your grocery bill and slimming your waistline could be as easy as switching to smaller plates?
Sometimes the best solutions to our problems are the simplest. Perhaps instead of investing money in diet books and weight loss programs, we should simply invest in smaller dinnerware.
Have you noticed an increase in portion sizes served in restaurants? Have portion sizes increased in your home as well? Do you think the key to weight loss can be found in smaller plates and smaller cups?