May as well just eat it direct from the pot with a spoon. 'murica portion size geez.

@Trancecoach

I think Jigga's making the argument on the collective level. Yes, we can all use self control to limit portion sizes.

But collectively, where the multimillion dollar funding of fast food marketing departments is geared towards incentivising larger portions as a method of eking out more profit from their saturated (excuse the pun) market size, it's quite likely that average calorie consumption goes up on the whole.

That doesn't excuse taking responsibility for your actions, and certainly you could tackle it with education campaigns rather than regulation or bans, but there's certainly a relationship here between incentives and national health.

@Trancecoach

I never said people don't have self control, but if it were as simple as "eat less and exercise," no one would be unhealthy or obese. Instead, we're looking at a majority of the population that's overweight.

http://www.nourishinteractive.com/system/assets/general/images/nutrition-facts/portion-control-larger-portions.png

I'm not saying that it's the only reason for weight problems, but as the original article I posted points out "No one eats one and one quarter of an apple." Portion size increases provide correlative data that coincide with weight problems in developed countries. I've yet to see any data that suggests that people in the world, collectively, suddenly have less self control.

I'm no dietician, but I'd say that the low-fat food crazes of the 1980s and 90s played a role as well: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/low-fat/

Typical low-fat options replace the fat (and protein in some cases) with sugar which is burned quicker by the body.

I could go on and on, but I stand on the position that it's NOT just a simple matter of self control. AND even if it is, people have varying levels of self control that need to be accounted for: http://cess.nyu.edu/caplin/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Measuring-Self-Control-Problems.pdf

Surely, you don't think everyone has the same level of self control as you?


Edit: One last thing, sometimes people rely on food labels to restrict their diet and come up short because nutrition facts are often unreliable: http://nutritionovereasy.com/2011/04/can-you-trust-the-nutrition-facts/ Self control without good information is a bad mix.

http://lifehacker.com/why-we-eat-whatevers-in-front-of-us-473869866

Corporations control portion sizes and encourage people to buy larger ones through pricing options.

I tried some UNREAL peanut butter cups last night.

-They tasted much better than Reese's, but not as good as Trader Joe's. (This might have something to do with the chocolate to peanut butter ratio - Trader Joe's are 'minis') They were good, but not so good that they elicit an "OMG."
-Calories clocked in at 190, which I believe is about 100 less than Recee's
-Ingredients are much better.
-The portion size seemed smaller, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for supersized Americans
-They are about 50 cents more than regular candy bars.

Verdict: Tasty, but there are better options out there if you are going to indulge in calorie rich treats.

Just wanted to point out the mathematics of reducing the plate size from 12" to 10".

Measuring my own plates (which are 10") I noticed that the border for the plates is approx 1.5" wide, which reduces the effective area of the plate by 3" diameter.

A 10" plate will have a 7" effective diameter, and using pi*r^2 we have an area of approx 154.

A 12" plate would have a 9" effective diameter, and calculating it's area we get approx 254.

A 10" plate is 40% smaller in effective area than a 12" plate, so to me it's actually surprising that there is only a 22% reduction in food consumption (which can probably be explained by the psychology of perceived portion sizes and wanting to fill in the empty space of a plate).

Personally I think you have to be pretty out of touch with what you are buying if you do not notice the decrease in product.

Sorry, I have a problem with paying the same for less, I do not have a problem with paying more for the same, I understand inflation, a lot of the other monkeys on the planet do as well. I flat out dont eat at mcdonalds anymore because of the portion sizes, like your other video, a bigmac, itself, just the burger is not worth 4:25 , its just not worth it.

I agree with the intent of this video.

Like everyone, I don't want my food prices to go up BUT if they go up, I see the difference and adjust my grocery accordingly. Most people would never notice the package size difference, especially if the package shape is designed to actually look bigger. The fact is, they don't want the consumer to notice so they hide/disguise the idea of the package decrease. Completely dishonest in my opinion. If the commodity price goes up, reflect the price in the product so the consumer can be aware and make purposeful decisions on their product shopping.

I have been very aware of this lately. Here are some examples:

1). Chocolate bars - The new trend is to offer "Slim" chocolate bars (you know, for people who want a more controlled portion size). These chocolate bars sell at the same price as a normal bar but is half the bar.

2). Chocolate Bars again - The other day, I went out to buy a 4-pack of bars (4 family members) at Wal-mart, they were $2.50 for a bag/package. but when I looked at the weights. some brands of bars drastically less. Snickers won the heaviest at about 4.2 while some packs weighed as little as 1.8 - Less product, same price. http://videosift.com/video/Mars-Bar-11-6-Downsize AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30wsqtiBrVw

3) Restaurants - The Big Mac is roughly half the size it used to be, McDonalds has taken it's "BIG" burger and transformed it into the Lil' Mac - http://videosift.com/video/I-Want-My-BIG-MAC-Back-Super-Shrink-Me

4). Have you been for a Banana Split lately at Dairy Queen? What used to be the headliner treat and the biggest Sunday around has become a joke! The banana split still has three blobs of ice-cream ice-milk with a banana but the toppings have been drastically reduced to a table-spoon of topping on each blob, not even enough to cover the Ice cream.Slightly enemic on the toppings - if you ask for a little extra, be prepared to ad a couple more dollars to the already to high of a price $4.50

Of course, this is in every product - since I do the shopping for my family, I always look at size and weight. Normally, the "Brand Name" always has the smaller package/higher price, while generic and store brands almost always end up the better deal.

I'm assuming he's talking about the Haber process.
As mentioned on the wikipedia page, it sustains one third of the world's population. the "political choice" our evil overlords have made seems less like a choice and more like absolute common sense.

Also, if there is enough food in the world to feed everyone, why is he even targeting the production of food, and not the distribution?

Also, if the world's resources are not enough to feed everyone at an American diet (fair enough, portion sizes and packaging have exploded in recent decades afaik), is it then big enough to sustain a wider adoption of small, inefficient 3rd world-style farming?

But I do agree that biofuels made from food is an idiotic idea.

After watching more videos on tasting menus I have come to appreciate what they are. I guess I more rail against the restaurants that serve up tiny dishes as THE meal... no large number of courses.

I would have been there in a flash if I were anywhere near Vancouver!

I've discovered a highly regarded restaurant which does tasting menus a couple of hours from me... one day I shalst go.

Good luck, hope it goes well.

In reply to this comment by djsunkid:
Mheh- too bad you're missing out on this:
http://www.videosift.com/talk/Sift-Up-in-Vancouver-Whos-Coming#comment-526180

No dandelion petal unfortunately, but each course will only be a few bites.

Then again, it is 12 courses, not just 3 or 4

In reply to this comment by spoco2:
>> ^djsunkid:
Sorry, have to downvote. It was a reflex reaction when they showed mcdonalds with fine dining over it. Want to see american fine dining? Try Alinea or MOTO or The French Laundry, or WD-50, or any of a hundred different places. America actually does have a cuisine. STFU. Fucking big mac. Argh.

I just watched the Alinea video, and while I'm sure the food is delicious, I HATE that form of cuisine...
"Here is your main meal sir"
"Where?"
"There sir, on the plate"
"I can see a flower petal on a stick"
"Yes sir, that is your meal, a dandelion petal infused with Yak butter broth, perched delicately atop a reduction of baby seal flipper, drizzled with aioli and ground camel hoof."
"Well, that sounds great, but I think I'll eat that in, erm, one, maybe two mouthfuls"
"Ahh, but of course, you just need to order another 18 courses sir"
"This one cost me $45 on its own!"
"Is sir a cheapskate?"
"No, but I do need to pay the bills"
"I scoff at you sir... scoff"

Really, a complete wank... I enjoy good food, I enjoy food with great presentation, but I can NEVER come at food where the portion sizes are so insanely small that even after a 3 or 4 course meal you're left empty. I don't suggest just going to a steakhouse and getting the largest damn slab o' meat you can, but come on, I go out to EAT not to sample.

Mheh- too bad you're missing out on this:
http://www.videosift.com/talk/Sift-Up-in-Vancouver-Whos-Coming#comment-526180

No dandelion petal unfortunately, but each course will only be a few bites.

Then again, it is 12 courses, not just 3 or 4

In reply to this comment by spoco2:
>> ^djsunkid:
Sorry, have to downvote. It was a reflex reaction when they showed mcdonalds with fine dining over it. Want to see american fine dining? Try Alinea or MOTO or The French Laundry, or WD-50, or any of a hundred different places. America actually does have a cuisine. STFU. Fucking big mac. Argh.

I just watched the Alinea video, and while I'm sure the food is delicious, I HATE that form of cuisine...
"Here is your main meal sir"
"Where?"
"There sir, on the plate"
"I can see a flower petal on a stick"
"Yes sir, that is your meal, a dandelion petal infused with Yak butter broth, perched delicately atop a reduction of baby seal flipper, drizzled with aioli and ground camel hoof."
"Well, that sounds great, but I think I'll eat that in, erm, one, maybe two mouthfuls"
"Ahh, but of course, you just need to order another 18 courses sir"
"This one cost me $45 on its own!"
"Is sir a cheapskate?"
"No, but I do need to pay the bills"
"I scoff at you sir... scoff"

Really, a complete wank... I enjoy good food, I enjoy food with great presentation, but I can NEVER come at food where the portion sizes are so insanely small that even after a 3 or 4 course meal you're left empty. I don't suggest just going to a steakhouse and getting the largest damn slab o' meat you can, but come on, I go out to EAT not to sample.

>> ^djsunkid:
Sorry, have to downvote. It was a reflex reaction when they showed mcdonalds with fine dining over it. Want to see american fine dining? Try Alinea or MOTO or The French Laundry, or WD-50, or any of a hundred different places. America actually does have a cuisine. STFU. Fucking big mac. Argh.

I just watched the Alinea video, and while I'm sure the food is delicious, I HATE that form of cuisine...
"Here is your main meal sir"
"Where?"
"There sir, on the plate"
"I can see a flower petal on a stick"
"Yes sir, that is your meal, a dandelion petal infused with Yak butter broth, perched delicately atop a reduction of baby seal flipper, drizzled with aioli and ground camel hoof."
"Well, that sounds great, but I think I'll eat that in, erm, one, maybe two mouthfuls"
"Ahh, but of course, you just need to order another 18 courses sir"
"This one cost me $45 on its own!"
"Is sir a cheapskate?"
"No, but I do need to pay the bills"
"I scoff at you sir... scoff"

Really, a complete wank... I enjoy good food, I enjoy food with great presentation, but I can NEVER come at food where the portion sizes are so insanely small that even after a 3 or 4 course meal you're left empty. I don't suggest just going to a steakhouse and getting the largest damn slab o' meat you can, but come on, I go out to EAT not to sample.

I can't believe plastiquemonkey is the only person so far to point out how far removed this kind of "food" is from actual Italian cuisine. That shit is garbage. It doesn't help that their portion sizes are absolutely outrageous. But the truth is, olive oil is good for you. Eating cheese after a meal is good for digestion and for your teeth.

Honestly, I am completely in agreement with most of this video, with the exception of calling this kind of food "Italian". Where's choggie, he knows what I'm talking about. Some roasted red peppers marinated in olive oil and raw garlic. A nice Pasta di Aglio e Olio con Pepperoncino. Some pickled eggplant. Some fresh buffalo mozzarella with anchovies and bread.

That stuff is totally american bullshit. When you make your lasagna with bechamel (originally known as Salsa Colla), fresh tomatos, eggplant and ricotta, I want you to portion that sucker up reasonably, then count the calories and get back to me.

Ragh