Even healthy foods add up. Learn how portion sizes quietly boost your caloric intake, and what to do about it.
With so much talk about ingredients, chemicals, and marketing campaigns, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that portion sizes for many foods these days are huge. Even without the whole 'supersizing' element, it's easy to eat far more than necessary and turbo-boost your caloric intake.
Studies conducted by Brown University showed that volunteers would consistently eat more if they were given more, including regular meals and snacks. In one snack study, one group of students received snacks totaling 4,350 calories and another got snacks totaling 8,750 calories. Each group was told to eat as much as they wanted over a three-day period. The group with more food consumed 81 percent more calories. Basically, in the majority of cases, people will eat more food if more food is presented to them.
One of the simplest ways to master portion control is to serve yourself smaller portions to begin with, use smaller plates, and give your body time to register fullness before reaching for seconds. If you have questions about nutrition, contact our Lima, OH weight loss team.