what's wrong with the US: huge portions

[nostatic]

I've been on vacation this week with the boy at Big Bear Lake. As a result we've been eating out pretty much every meal. And frankly I'm somewhat stunned. The portions are just ridiculous. I haven't been able to finish a single meal.

Yes, I eat out when I'm in LA. But a lot of Asian cuisine or ala carte where I can pick and choose. In this case, up here I ordered a "proper dinner" (or breakfast, or lunch) and barely made it half of the way through. And I'm not a waif...I'm 6'1" 175lbs with a high metabolism and a good apetite.

When did we become a nation of gluttons (with resulting astronomical obesity figures)? Or is Big Bear Lake just an aberration?

[widebody911]

I have the same problem with portion size, and I'm 6'2" 245lbs!

[artplumber]

I'd rather "despair" over not finishing (and taking it home most of the time) than eating those tiny portions in nouvelle anything cuisine.

An option at many places is to split dishes if you know the portion sizes are going to be large. Or try several appetizers (like the method of Tappas). Prob more difficult with a kid than sig other.

[bell]

did you also notice that mcdonalds/wendy's/etc eliminated the "super-size" option........then after the media lost intrest they then simply re-named the sizes....i.e. small is the old medium, medium is the old large, and large is the old supersize.....
shady stuff

[nostatic]

I hadn't eaten any fast food for a couple of weeks (been trying to stay away as much as possible) but finally hit McDs this week. I order the small and find that it is still seems like a pound of fries and a bucket of soda. The only saving grace is that there are now options, but I've done their salads and they aren't very good. And the salad dressings have like 40%+ of your daily fat intake!

[snowman]

You all are the wrong demographic. Just ask an 18 year old, male or female, if the portion is big enough. About half way thru their 2nd mega size meal.

Did you read the latest study on fat? It seems that you cannot absorb the nutrients from that salad without the higher fat content of regular salad dressing. THe study also notes that you still must consider the total calories consumed.

Bottom line, its not if the food is "fast" but how much and what kind of food you eat, fast or slow. Moderation in everything, consumption of everything. 1000 calories is 1000 calories, no matter where you eat it.

[on-ramp]

have you been to Walmart recently? scary place, but "all-American"

[snowman]

Wal-mart. ie made in China.

[nostatic]

Originally posted by on-ramp
have you been to Walmart recently? scary place, but "all-American"

no, I've never set foot in a Walmart.

[M.D. Holloway]

Todd - portion sizes get a bit smaller on $5/day!

(BTW - only one way to loose weight, burn more calories than you take in - in other words don't eat so much.)

[artplumber]

Originally posted by snowman

Did you read the latest study on fat? It seems that you cannot absorb the nutrients from that salad without the higher fat content of regular salad dressing. THe study also notes that you still must consider the total calories consumed.

You categorically do not need to eat a fatty meal to absorb so-called fat soluble vitamins. That's what your gall-bladder and something called bile is there for. Furthermore, the advantage of eating low caloric density foods, is that it may actually take more energy to absorb the food than is in the food (most extreme example is celery). Therefore, by eating the food you actually lose weight.

[snowman]

Just read the study. Your are wrong. Counter to what the fat nuts have stated, you do have to eat fat to actually absorb the nutrients. Want to argue? Blood tests proved that the fat was absolutely necessary. A no fat, or low fat diet resulted in almost no antioxidents, vitamins from the veggies being absorbed. High fat content caused orders of magnitudes more nutrients being absorbed. The only consideration for the fat is that it be included in the calories consumed. Again this makes sense. Moderation in everything, but consume everything.

Most of my family that has lived to their 90's, very active 90's have eaten pickeled pigs feet for snacks all of their lives. I suspect they also ate in moderation, but it would be hard to tell. eating all those pies with lard for pie crust and all. One of the biggest health nuts I have ever known, a health teacher from high school, total veggie, died of a massive heart attack at age 40.

All this fast food and everyone is living longer, a lot longer and more healthy lives than our ancestors. Explain that.

[nostatic]

great Snow, agrue with a vascular surgeon on this topic.

Longevity is due in no small part to genetics. Plenty of example of people who eat crap and live forever. And others (Jim Fixx) who eat well and are in perfect shape then keel over at a young age.

Mike, I'm not really trying to lose weight. I need to do some more ab work to get rid of the start of a bit of flab but I was just more shocked at how much food it seems we're expected to eat.

[snowman]

vascular surgeons can be idiots as well as anyone else.

On second thought, pardon me for calling him an idiot. I would think as a vascular surgeon he would keep up on his field.

[artplumber]

Originally posted by snowman
Just read the study. Your are wrong.

Since, there are a huge number of physiologic papers describing intestinal absorption, a single paper to the contrary proves nothing. (your citation is absent). So your assertion that I (who by the way is actually involved in treating patients) am wrong, is plainly a bit of an overreach.

Most of my family that has lived to their 90's, very active 90's have eaten pickeled pigs feet for snacks all of their lives. I suspect they also ate in moderation, but it would be hard to tell. eating all those pies with lard for pie crust and all. One of the biggest health nuts I have ever known, a health teacher from high school, total veggie, died of a massive heart attack at age 40.

Just because your family members lived to a ripe old age proves nothing (ever heard of gaussian distribution of characteristics). It's just like people claiming that since George Burns lived to 90 some then it must be ok to smoke. Bollocks! Your family (for whatever universal joke reason) has the luck of good genes. The poor vegetarian who died of a massive heart attack at age 40 may well have died in his 30's without that vegetarian diet. The same bogus argument applies to Jim Fixx who died in his late 40's while running. Those who say physical exercise is not worthwhile because he died young, fail to note that Fixx's father died in his 30's of coronary disease (IIRC)!

[nostatic]

Originally posted by snowman
vascular surgeons can be idiots as well as anyone else.

On second thought, pardon me for calling him an idiot. I would think as a vascular surgeon he would keep up on his field.

do tell what your field is (with a cv perhaps), and how you are able to keep up with (and understand) the latest physiology literature.

[snowman]

How about this related, topic that is contrary to the accepted wisdom, and the reference is cited

"Dietary fat intake and risk of stroke in male US healthcare professionals: 14 year prospective cohort study
Ka He, research associate1, Anwar Merchant, research associate1, Eric B Rimm, associate professor1, Bernard A Rosner, professor2, Meir J Stampfer, professor1, Walter C Willett, professor1, Alberto Ascherio, associate professor1

1 Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA, 2 Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health

Correspondence to: K He hpkhe@channing.harvard.edu

Objective To examine the association between intake of total fat, specific types of fat, and cholesterol and risk of stroke in men.

Design and setting Health professional follow up study with 14 year follow up.

Participants 43 732 men aged 40-75 years who were free from cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in 1986.

Main outcome measure Relative risk of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke according to intake of total fat, cholesterol, and specific types of fat.

Results During the 14 year follow up 725 cases of stroke occurred, including 455 ischaemic strokes, 125 haemorrhagic stokes, and 145 strokes of unknown type. After adjustment for age, smoking, and other potential confounders, no evidence was found that the amount or type of dietary fat affects the risk of developing ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke. Comparing the highest fifth of intake with the lowest fifth, the multivariate relative risk of ischaemic stroke was 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.65 to 1.28; P for trend = 0.77) for total fat, 1.20 (0.84 to 1.70; P = 0.47) for animal fat, 1.07 (0.77 to 1.47; P = 0.66) for vegetable fat, 1.16 (0.81 to 1.65; P = 0.59) for saturated fat, 0.91 (0.65 to 1.28; P = 0.83) for monounsaturated fat, 0.88 (0.64 to 1.21; P = 0.25) for polyunsaturated fat, 0.87 (0.62 to 1.22; P = 0.42) for trans unsaturated fat, and 1.02 (0.75 to 1.39; P = 0.99) for dietary cholesterol. Intakes of red meats, high fat dairy products, nuts, and eggs were also not appreciably related to risk of stroke.

Conclusions These findings do not support associations between intake of total fat, cholesterol, or specific types of fat and risk of stroke in men."

There are additional studies, recent studies that challenge the evil of fat in the diet.

I would cite a referance for the latest fat/nutittion study, but it was in the news, in the last 2 weeks, so I should be able to assume that any well read person would be aware of it.

[artplumber]

Originally posted by snowman
....

Conclusions These findings do not support associations between intake of total fat, cholesterol, or specific types of fat and risk of stroke in men.

Do you see anything in this study that indicates that fat soluble vitamins are ineffectively absorbed depending on the quartile of fat intake?

Todd, I see now that you got there before I did about Fixx et al. Godd for you.

Also, just for clarification so that no one will say I mislead anyone, I am a cardiovascular interventionalist (that is different than a surgeon in that I actually treat patients (a little specialty friction), with therapies - pharmacologic or not, aimed at their risk factors, or with angioplasties and stuff like that to avoid surgery).

[gavinlit]

C'mon snowwy, reveal your true self & out with the cv. I for one would be quite interested given the strength of some of your opinions. I recall in particular some interesting advice on career choice. So what's your background?

[dd74]

Originally posted by nostatic
And others (Jim Fixx) who eat well and are in perfect shape then keel over at a young age.

I'm not certain about this, but if I recall, Jim Fixx was extremely overweight before he took up running and eating properly. An autopsy found, harsh as it was, that the damage was already done whilst Fixx was overweight.

In short, he already had the Reaper's target on his back; the running and extreme diet only sped up the heart attack that killed Fixx.