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Big Gains From Small Plates

9 March 2009

Portion Distortion Is A Real Phenomenon

Larger packages in shops and supermarkets, large meal servings in restaurants and cafes, large dinner plates and bowls in our homes - all of this 'largeness' is causing portion distortion for us consumers. In plain english, that means if we're continually served over-sized food portions we begin to think these larger portion sizes are normal. And if we think a large portion is normal then we go ahead and eat it, thereby increasing our food intake at that meal - unconsciously.

Our Stomaches Don't Notice Our Overeating

The fact is, we can eat 20-25% more than normal and not even notice. We don't feel overfull, we don't even know it happened. Until we eat 20-25% more day after day, week after week, and then we wonder why our trousers feel tighter than normal.

I've blogged before about the important role that plates, glasses, cutlery and all sorts of eating implements can have on our health. Big is not better when it comes to the tools we use for eating. Rather, small is sensational! And small plates are making a comeback all around the world, care of the Small Plate Movement....

Join The Small Plate Movement^TM

Professor Brian Wansink is the name behind much great food psychology research on how our environment encourages us to mindlessly overeat. Wansink recently launched the Small Plate Movement^TM (SPM). The SPM aims to get people eating off a 10 inch diameter plate rather than larger plates. Why? Because smaller plates encourage us to eat less, and you know what that means...

Using a 10 inch plate for dinner, instead of a larger plate, for one month resulted in an average 1.8lb or 0.8kg weight loss in study participants, according to Wansink. The SPM points out that reducing our plate size from 12 inch to 10 inch results in a 22% reduction in calories on our plate, so it's not surprising that people eating off smaller plates start losing weight.

The SPM theorises that using a smaller plate for dinner for an entire year could result in a loss of 18 pounds or around 8 kilograms by year end for an average sized adult. Check out the Small Plate Movement's website:

www.smallplatemovement.org

Practical Advice - Small Plates Forever!

Use these simple tips to encourage healthy eating:

Join the Small Plate Movement - visit the SPM website and sign up to the challenge, you're more likely to succeed at this type of challenge if you work alongside a group of like-minded people;
Small plates in metric - a 10 inch plate in metric terms is around 25cm, so you're looking for a plate that is 25cm in diameter, get out your tape measure or your ruler and measure from one side of your plate to the other - if it's 25cm across, or close to that, then great! If it's significantly larger or smaller then you need an alternative (too small plates are as bad as too big, you'll tend to go back for seconds);
Get yourself a small plate for meals at home - find that 10 inch plate and make it your favourite plate for serving dinners on at home;
Dining out, choose the small plate - eating at a buffet? if there are plate options take the smaller 10 inch plate, even if it's at the bottom of the plate pile and everyone at the buffet has to wait for you to extract it from the pile;
At work, choose the small plate - if your work place is like most others, you'll probably have a haphazard selection of mismatched plates in the lunchroom or work cafeteria. The same principle applies here, take your time and sort through the plate pile to find yourself a 10 inch plate.

A Nutritionist's Perspective

I discovered the Small Plate Movement website while in South Africa. Unfortunately my home is in Auckland, New Zealand and therefore my kitchen and my plates are also in Auckland, New Zealand. I have no idea what size my plates are!! But, as soon as I arrive home I'll be checking them with a tape measure... and I'm praying they are 10 inches in diameter, because we only got the dinner-set a couple of years ago and I'm going to be VERY unhappy if they're too big...

The funny thing is, it all sounds too simple. How could eating off a smaller plate result in weight loss?? But, the proof is in the pudding, or lack of pudding, it seems. I've read the research papers on the SPM website and I'm convinced that this is something we should do for life, encourage our children to do, our grandchildren and their children, and even their grandchildren, you get the idea...

Small plates need to become the norm again. None of this silly restaurant culture where you're served a pokey little piece of food on a massively oversized plate. Who can ever feel full or satisfied with a meal like that? Not me. Even if it's a decent sized meal, sticking it in the middle of a huge plate makes it look so puny I feel like I'm being ripped off. Whoever came up with that idea anyway?

Small plates are the new big thing, in my opinion. Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your workmates, tell your favourite restaurant, it's time for a small plate revolution!

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