Our Increasing Portion Size

An interesting article over on Divine Caroline examines a side by side comparison of how food portions have changed over the past twenty years. Historic and current images show off the steadily increasing physical size and calorie count of common foods like pizza, bagels and popcorn along with drinks like coffee and soda. This curious jump in portion size makes us wonder – just how did this all happen?

Divine Caroline reports:

It’s not just food portions that have increased; plate, bowl, and cup sizes have as well. In the early 1990s, the standard size of a dinner plate increased from 10 to 12 inches; cup and bowl sizes also increased. Larger eating containers can influence how much people eat. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that when people were given larger bowls and spoons they served themselves larger portions of ice cream and tended to eat the whole portion.

Divine Caroline: “Portion Size, Then Vs. Now”