Abstract
The greater energy content of larger food portions could be contributing to the increasing
prevalence of overweight. Prevention guidelines recommend ″sensible” portion sizes
but do not define them. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines standard serving
sizes for dietary guidance, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines standard
servings for food labels. To use these standards in counseling, nutritionists must
know the sizes of portions available in the marketplace. We determined marketplace
portion sizes, identified changes in these sizes with time, and compared current marketplace
portions with federal standards. Most marketplace portions exceed standard serving
sizes by at least a factor of 2 and sometimes 8-fold. Portions have increased over
time; those offered by fast-food chains, for example, often are 2 to 5 times larger
than the original size. The discrepancy between marketplace portions and standard
servings suggests the need for greater emphasis on the relationship of portion size
to energy intake as a factor in weight maintenance. J Am Diet Assoc. 2003;103:231-234.
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Article info
Publication history
0002-8223/03/10302-0018$35.00/0
Footnotes
☆This study was part of Dr. Young's dissertation research at New York University and was supported in part by a scholarship from the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies and a Dean's Grant for Student Research from the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University.
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 American Dietetic Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
