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 Have you ever wondered how big a healthy sized meal is? I mean, how much food is enough and how much is too much? It's a question many of us ponder. Have I got too much meat on my plate? Or not enough? Frankly, it's darn near impossible to estimate visually how much to eat in order to meet our energy and nutrient needs.
And it's really not something we consciously think about, rather we depend on subconscious cues to tell us how much to eat, such as:
- How big is the plate?
- How much is everyone else eating?
- How much food is in the packet you're serving your meal from?
And much further down the list comes a more accurate measure - our appetite. If we listen very carefully and eat slowly we can sense when we feel full and should finish our meal. Unfortunately with all the competing influences around us it's not surprising many of us don't feel confident trusting our appetite.
Bigger Plates Encourage Us To Eat More
I was reminded again recently just how much our dinner plates can influence our food intake - the bigger they are the more we eat. And the unfortunate thing is over the last few decades many of our dinner plates, bowls, glasses and the like have been getting bigger - is it any surprise then that overweight and obesity is a growing problem?
US researchers recently analysed 52 famous paintings depicting Jesus Christ and his disciples at The Last Supper, these were painted between the year 1000 and 2000. What the researchers discovered was that over the course of those 1000 years the supper Jesus and the disciples were eating was actually getting bigger and bigger!
And if art really does imitate life then I guess its not surprising that even in artwork the amount of food on plates is growing larger.
Practical Tips - Keep An Eye On Portions
So it seems portion-distortion is alive and well both in the art world and real life. But you can beat these effects, with the tips contained in the following blog postings - read on and learn more:
Dinner plates to the rescue - 4 practical tips on using plates wisely to promote healthy eating
Big gains from small plates - learn how a smaller plate can benefit you
Old recipes better for health - learn how modern recipes are sabotaging our diet
Great tips for healthy dinner tables - learn how to set a dinner table that encourages smaller portion sizes
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