The Size of Dinner Plates

My wife likes to buy antiques. A while ago she bought a set of antique limoge china. One thing I found interesting was the size of the dinner plates. The antique plates are far smaller than any dinner plate that you would buy new today. I would estimate that the plates are at least twenty-five percent smaller.

So, what is the point? If you haven't noticed, there is an obesity epidemic in the United States. Over sixty percent of the adult population of the United States is either overweight or obese. The fact that dinner plates are so much larger today is an artifact of the epidemic. Portions are larger; people eat more often; the server at MacDonald's is shocked that I don't want fries or to super-size my grilled chicken sandwich.

I read an interesting article on diets and dieting. The author asked a number of well known nutritionists to comment on dieting. The point of the article was that there is really little difference between the different types of diets in the long run. You need to consume less calories than you burn to loose weight. Further, in the long run, you need to make life style changes if you plan on keeping the weight off. Too often people look at weight loss as a goal to achieve. Once they have achieved that goal, then they are done (and proceed to put all the weight back on).