Portion distortion - How portion size today makes us fat

October 15th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

NHLBI or the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has some great information about portion distortion. On the NHLBI site the portion size from 20 years ago and the portion now are displayed. Subsequent slides reveal to you how many more calories is in a portion now and how long a given activity would have to be done to burn those extra calories.

Let me give you a couple of examples and then I will give you a link to the NHLBI site.

20 years ago if you bought a chocolate chip cookie it was 1 1/2 inches in diameter and contained 55 calories. Today it is 3 1/2 inches in diameter and contains 275 calories. If you washed your car for 1 hour and 15 minutes you would burn up 220 calories.

One more example. 20 years ago a take out serving of chicken stir fry was 2 cups and contained 435 calories. Today that serving is 4 1/2 cups and 865 calories. If you participated in an aerobic dance class for 1 hour and 5 minutes you would burn the extra 430 calories contained in today’s serving.

To see more examples of portion distortion go to the NHLBI web site here or here.

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  1. Comment by Mckenna Wilson on 16 June 2008:

    Wow that is insane! And people wonder why the world is getting fatter… Thanks for pointing this out to us!

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