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I ate at Claim Jumper for the first recently. “Be careful,” Kris warned me. “The portions are huge.” I didn’t think much of her warning until my food began to come. The portions were huge! I ended up taking home enough food for two additional meals.
Get in my belly
By one measure, eating at Claim Jumper is a good deal — you get two or three meals worth of food for your money. But by another measure, dining there is dangerous. And it’s not just Claim Jumper. Portion sizes in the United States have been increasing for some time. According to a USA Today article from a couple years ago, “a typical restaurant meal has at least 60% more calories than the average meal made at home.”
Portion size wouldn’t matter if we were able to limit our calorie intake. We’d eat what we needed and take the rest home. But that’s not how our minds work. As portion sizes have increased in the past twenty years — not just in restaurants, but in pre-packaged foods, too, and even at home — Americans have done a poor job of compensating. When offered large portions, we tend to eat large portions. And we do a poor job of adjusting what we eat later. Larger portions in restaurants make larger portions at home more acceptable, leading to a dangerous spiral.
Portion size research
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control published a wonderful plain-English review of the research into the effects of portion size. Among the points the paper makes:
- The fundamental rule of weight management is that people gain weight when they eat more calories than they expend.
- Short-term studies show that people eat more when they are confronted with larger portion sizes.
- Even though there is information available about appropriate serving sizes, people generally do not correctly assess the amount they are eating.
The paper recommends the following steps to reduce overeating due to portion size:
- When dining in a restaurant, either split your entrée with a companion, or ask the server for a doggie bag before the food is brought to the table. Reduce the portion size first.
- When eating at home, take steps to reduce the desire for “seconds” and “thirds”. Don’t bring the serving dishes to the table. Dish up reasonable portions on individual plates.
- When eating in front of the television, allow yourself a reasonable amount of food. Put the rest away before you begin eating.
- Control hunger between meals with healthy snacks like fruits and vegetables.
Grandma Jean’s pasta
I’ve noticed the affect of larger portion sizes in my own life. Though I try to do a good job in restaurants, it’s easy to give in. One of my favorite dishes is Grandma Jean’s Pasta at a nearby Italian joint. It features an enormous plate of penne coated in tomato sauce and sauteed with pepperoni and pork ribs. It’s great stuff. But the portion the restaurant serves is — I’m not joking — enough for three or four meals. Most of the time I’m smart, and I stretch this food over a few days. Sometimes, though, I give in, and eat most of it in one sitting.
Worse, though, are the pre-packaged foods. If a manufacturer is going to put a certain amount in a container, I’m often going to eat it all in one sitting, regardless of the “serving size” stamped on the label. That’s a habit I’ve been working to break, too.
Small and cheap
One final note: because I’ve become a frugal fellow, I’ve noticed something interesting. There are restaurants that still offer reasonable portions. They’re not the norm, but they exist. These restaurants generally seem to offer smaller prices. (Subjectively, I think the food tends to be better, too, but I have no data to back that up.)
One local Mexican place, for example, offers high-quality $2 tacos. Each one is just a bit of meat and salsa on a small tortilla. Simple, but delicious. I’m able to order one, two, or three tacos depending on my hunger and my calorie needs. I like this “build it yourself” approach better than only being offered four tacos for eight bucks.
[See also: Super Size Me.]
Mac
23 responses so far ↓
1 Debi // Sep 2, 2008 at 7:54 am
mmmmm Claim Jumper…. The Chocolate Chip Calzone is the best dessert I’ve ever had. But, yes, you have to share it with at least 3 people or you’d make yourself sick.
2 Fit Bottomed Girls // Sep 2, 2008 at 8:55 am
The restaurant tips are great. My hubby and I try to split meals whenever we can agree on the same item and we’ve never left a restaurant hungry doing that.
3 J.D. // Sep 2, 2008 at 9:02 am
My favorite dish at Gino’s is the clams. These clams are served in a wine/butter/pepper/garlic broth that can make me melt. They’re also served with bread.
I often say to Kris that I should go to Gino’s and just order the clams and a glass of wine. That would be enough. Yet I never do. For some reason, whenever we go, I order the clams and something else (often the Grandma Jean’s). It’s so ingrained into me that an appetizer is an appetizer and not a main dish.
Maybe it’s time to go back to Gino’s and exercise self-control.
4 Rachel // Sep 2, 2008 at 9:46 am
I agree about the restaurant portions, but who comes up with the portions for the listings on foods? And when was the last time they were updated?
A lot of the time they are fine. A handful of chips or 1 soda. That’s about right. BUT - who eats half a cup of rice? Or pasta? If I went to a restaurant that charged me $8 for a half a cup of pasta I would want my money back!
I just ate a can of chicken noodle soup for lunch. 1 can is supposed to feed 2.5 people. Really? Seriously? I warm it up in a tupperware dish that holds exactly two cups. So a serving is like 3/4 of a cup of basically chicken broth? Come on….
I’m all for serving sizes, but maybe they wouldn’t be so off if the regulated serving sizes weren’t so tiny!
5 Andrew is getting fit // Sep 2, 2008 at 11:17 am
I have to admit that ever since I started trying to get fit and live healthy I’ve been sharing meals with my wife whenever we go out. Most restaurants have huge portions indeed.
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7 Nicky // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Sometimes the ’serving size’ on packaged food is small to manipulate you into thinking the food isn’t so bad. So the package will say ‘calories per serving = x’ and ’servings per packet = 5′ (or 10 or 20) when you’d usually eat the lot at once.
Question from a non-American: if you want to take some of your meal home, what do you say? Do you ask to take the rest to go, or for a container, or what? We don’t really have the concept where I live so am wondering what I would say in that situation, without looking clumsy or an idiot.
8 Deb // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:48 pm
When I eat at Claim Jumpers (rarely),it is before going to a play at a regional theater. Knowing that I won’t be immediately returning home, I resist ordering a meal that I could eat for 3 days.
Instead, I order one of their appetizers as my main dish (they have a crab cake and salad that is the PERFECT portion for a meal).
never order dessert.
Never order a main dish.
And I’m satisfied.
9 deepali // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:12 pm
I think what some people miss about serving sizes is that one single food item shouldn’t be your entire meal. That 2.5 can of soup means you eat the 3/4 cup PLUS a salad (or whatever). That’s also how you meet all your requirements (like servings of grains, dairy, etc). That being said, it is so much easier to just eat the whole can. Which is fine - but then you sacrifice eating the salad…
And to Nicky - usually they ask you if you’d like to box it up or take it home. If not, I always ask for a container or just ask to pack it up. At American restaurants, it’s not strange (unless it’s a very high end one, but even then…).
10 Alexia // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Good tips. I have to ask for a box or else I’ll talk and nibble away at whatever I intended to take home, mindlessly, even if I’m full!
11 Brian Arnold // Sep 2, 2008 at 7:57 pm
You should really check out the book “Mindless Eating” by Brian Wansink.
http://www.mindlesseating.org/
Seriously, it’s what started me on my weight loss. I’d hit 255 pounds and was climbing and it was horribly depressing. By doing nothing but reading that book and implementing some of the changes, I pushed down to 240 in a couple of months. No exercise, no watching *what* I ate — just employing tricks to eat less crap.
As I’ve tried to eat better, it’s gone down a bit more, albeit not as much as I’d like. I’m trying to mix in exercise now, but it’s not catching on like I’d hoped. I’m keeping up the effort though, somewhat.
12 Brian Arnold // Sep 2, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I should add, Mindless Eating isn’t a gimmicky diet. It’s the result of research by Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab, and talks about simple experiments where they basically prove that Americans will eat too much of whatever you put in front of them.
13 Metroknow // Sep 2, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I have a real love/hate relationship with Claim Jumper. When I did the South Beach diet, I loved it - I could order one “serving” of buffalo wings there, which were completely legal on South Beach. Which meant I got 20 or so wings, and could feel good about it.. .
I wrote a series on portion control, and Claim Jumper was the example. My sister actually had to quit after a car accident because she could no longer lift the serving trays. Unreal. Link is in my signature, for those interested.
14 Sheamus // Sep 3, 2008 at 1:19 am
Having just come back from a 3-week jaunt in sunny Mississippi, I’m well-versed in the size of portions in most American restaurants. I’ve been to the States half a dozen times over the years (my wife is an American citizen) but I’m still amazed not just at how much you get when you eat out, but how much you get for your money.
Eating out is unbelievably cheap in America. I’m not sure you guys realise how lucky you are. We ate all over the place while there but one lunch at Olive Branch really stuck out for me.
With our two main courses (both of which were huge), we got a salad starter, endless Italian breadsticks (with dips), a separate starter of four-cheese bake with smaller bread portions (which we ordered), two glasses of wine and a few glasses of very well-served mineral water for $45. That’s about £22.50 where I come from.
ONE person couldn’t get all that in most restaurants in the UK, even at lunch. Over here you get NOTHING free with your meals when you eat out - it’s all priced into the bill. If you want bread, you pay for it. If you want a salad, you pay for it. If you want - gasp - another Coke, you pay for it. At about $3-4 per glass, each time.
It became the norm for me to ask for a ‘box to go’ each and every time we ate out, simply because after that salad (which is never small) and some bread, I was already pretty full.
And at somewhere like Red Lobster - where the portion size of the main course was quite staggering - I could hardly eat any of it (especially after those free cheese biscuits they serve, which really are amazingly good).
There’s a flip side to this, of course, especially for American folk. When it’s SO cheap to eat out, why bother cooking at home? Subsequently, I think it’s a big part of the reason why obesity has become such a problem there.
And I’m talking restaurant prices here - you can eat tonnes of stuff at most fast food joints for less than $5.
I mean, Krystal does a ’steamer pack’, for cripe’s sake - 24 Krystals for $16. Twenty-four!
JD’s closing comment reminded me of another thing that’s unique to the States, too - eating more than one taco at a meal. Or, indeed, feeling it’s ‘normal’ to have three or four. My wife’s family did that as well - they’d order 3-4 tacos each as a meal. We’d both eat one, and not only feel that was enough but not really want any more than that.
Having said all that, I ate far too much whilst in the USA. It’s difficult not to, to be honest, especially in the South, because the home-cooked meals are often even more calorific than what you’d order out! But I was on holiday and I’d allocated that excess as part of my overall weight plan. Thankfully, the 100 or so miles I logged running every single day whilst over there meant that when I came back and weighed myself I hadn’t gained even a single pound. Good times.
15 Curt // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:08 am
I am in the military serving overseas and have been overseas for some time now. I haven’t “lived” in the states since 1991. Serving sizes are the one thing that blows my Japanese wives and my collective minds. Whenever we eat out while visiting home we either resign ourselves to some high quality leftovers OR we order the same meal and split it.
I just don’t get the rationalization. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but, give me half the rations at half the price.
On the green side, think of what a 50% reduction in industrial food production would mean for the environ……
16 Trish // Sep 3, 2008 at 6:12 am
I always ask for a box when I eat out. I fill up pretty quickly and usually get an additional two meals from the leftovers. I’ve just made it a matter of course to ask for a box whenever I eat out. Once it’s boxed up (even if other people at the table are still eating), I don’t keep snacking on it. And I get to enjoy the meal two more times at home! I like the idea about asking for the box at the start of the meal to cut down on your portion size before you start eating. I’ll be doing that from now on!
17 elisabeth // Sep 3, 2008 at 6:39 am
I went out to eat on Saturday with three friends. We split starters and desserts, and one bottle of wine. The restaurant (a local spot) also lets you order reduced sized main dishes; for example, the special that night was fried(!) mannicoti stuffed with ratatouille, but the waitress explained, “the serving size is two, but you can order just one.” So, lots of calories were saved, but when we were splitting the check one of us said we really should base our tip not on the actual cost of the meal but to represent the time and effort of the server and what she would have gotten from a “normal” table.
there’s also an interesting paradox emerging, between larger serving sizes and subtle reductions of package sizes. That’s especially true of packed soups, I think. It used to feel fine to me to make soup and sandwich dinners in which I split a can of soup between my husband and me. But now some of the soups we used to buy are 1-2 ounces less, not a lot maybe but still a reduction that means less in the bowl.. Similarly, I just noticed that one of our favorite jarred sauces had been reduced from 16 ounces to 15.5– not enough to make a difference when I divided it up for two meals, but still, it’s a reduction and I wonder how the increasing restaurant sizes and the reductions at home will work out….
18 Brigid // Sep 3, 2008 at 7:31 am
@ Sheamus: Crystals does not serve food. I don’t know what the heck it is, but I stay far away from it and it’s northern cousin White Castle:-) You are right - eating out can be cheap in America, but no matter how you slice it, it’s still cheaper to eat at home.
In my line of work - we travel a lot. Since we’re on the company dime, we often eat at some pretty nice places. We use to order a ton of food right off the bat. I try to encourage everyone to order appetizers first and wait until we are finished eating them before ordering the main course. Your whole perspective shifts once you aren’t as hungry. It’s kind of like how they say never grocery shop hungry.
Cheers!
19 Sheamus // Sep 3, 2008 at 9:02 am
I think for a lot of people, certainly somebody living by themselves, it isn’t much cheaper to eat at home. I’m not talking about quality of food, but if you fancy the taste of Mexican, say, you can eat at Taco Bell for a few dollars. It’ll easily cost you that, and more, to make it up home, particularly if you put a value on your time, as well (which you should).
The drive-thru option that is available everywhere (even at pharmacists - what’s THAT all about!?) makes it all even more convenient for the person or family running late after a hard day at the office.
If you’re talking home-cooking versus a fancy restaurant, then of course it’ll be cheaper, but again to make that level of food takes a lot of work and preparation. It’s SO cheap to eat out in the States that if you’re on anything but a very modest income if must be difficult to turn down inviations out. Particularly as the range of options there are enormous, and in States like California it’s very easy to eat out healthily, too.
Krystal is I feel the American take on what Britons call ‘the kebab shop’. Opens late, people go there after the bar, etc. The food is of a dubious quality but you’re six to the wind it’s exactly what the doctor ordered.
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21 Mike Panic // Sep 9, 2008 at 9:42 am
I kind of get a kick out this convo. Just last night I reached into my fridge and grabbed a single serve V8 Fusion drink, my Mom found them on sale and got me a few. Reading that each serving contained 1/2 cup of veggies and a 1/2 cup of fruit, I turned the bottle around to look how many fluid ounces were in it, since I knew that a serving was 8oz. Sure enough, it’s a 12oz bottle.
Also get a kick out of places like Buca Di Beppo’s - an Italian chain that serves “family sized” portions, i.e., two people need to order the same thing or you are going home with lots of left overs, oh yea, they have 1/2 pount meatballs too, who needs that?
I can recall an episode of No Reservations, the show on the Travel Channel with Anthony Bourdain when he’s in some small 3rd world country and about to sit down with a family to eat. He makes a comment to the effect of - these people often feed their entire family with about 8oz of protein (fish, meat, chicken) and suppliment the rest with veggies and rice. In America, it’s almost expected that each person gets 8oz of protein on their plate and the veggies are often an add-on, but never the main focus.
My success over the last 6-7 weeks of loosing weight has been portion control. I eat more small meals through the day, stop before I feel full and avoid eating excessive appitizers when going out with friends. I’ve also near totally cut out all beverages with the exception of water to cut down on the calorie intake.
22 Louche // Sep 29, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Why would we realize “just how lucky we are” to have cheap restaurants? That’s not a good thing, from my perspective. My mom thinks the cheaper the better and the more food the better. She buys things for no other reason than the cheapness, which means she sometimes buys 15 Jack-in-the-Box burgers at a time just to get a “good deal”. There are only four people eating these burgers.
My dad told me that just three or four decades ago, there were very few buffets in the Houston area. Then they started springing up everywhere. Buffets everywhere (my mom loves them)! My mom would take me to these when I was a kid, and if my brother or I didn’t eat at least as much as she did (which was stuffing herself), then she’d call us mice and threaten not to take us there anymore because it was too expensive.
Anyway, it’s this kind of restaurant that makes Houston one of the fattest cities in the universe. Last time I went to one, a place called China Border, there were only Hispanics there, and almost all of them were very obese.
I don’t eat out except when a friend asks me. Rarely do I get a friend who wants to share a meal. Last time, I tried to share a meal, but the lying waiter insisted one dish was only enough for one. My friend preferred to risk ordering too much than sharing a meal. I always get food to go at restaurants because it’s ridiculous.
I think that restaurants (esp. fast food) have pushed this mentality that cheaper and more is best, so people demand more, and restaurants respond by offering more, and it’s just an endless spiral.
23 Louche // Sep 29, 2008 at 4:27 pm
By the way, the U.S. supposedly throws out 1/3 of all food it consumes, so it is better you pay more for your fancy meal than waste. Also, most of the time I go to restaurants, I watch my friends leave what they didn’t eat as waste. One time I went to a restaurant with a few people and refused to order anything, and all three or four of them had leftovers. I said, “You can’t waste that!” and I poured all of it into a box to take home and still had enough for a couple of meals.
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