Health Power Hour Reading

• Name of Book: Food Fight
• Name of Chapter: Portions the Size of Cleveland
• Summary: This chapter is about how much portion sizes have increased dramatically since around the 1950s. Portions that used to be large, are now smalls and the major cause of increase in calorie intake is the increased portion sizes. It is considered nowadays that bigger is better, and many companies brag about how large they can make their portions. Many restaurants offer competitions for 'how much can you eat' and encourage overeating. Foods in other countries offer much smaller portions, and have generally smaller serving sizes. Even when people are offered larger portions, they eat more, and people do not compensate for the extra calorie intake. The huge American portions do not help anyone except for the companies themselves. Many people assume that the portion they are served is the correct amount - which shows just how difficult it is for a person to judge what is a correct serving. Companies do this because it is a question of value, not health. People want more for their money, and that is exactly what the companies give them. Humans are creatures of habit, and this will not be easily corrected. But people can be educated, companies can relabel their foods, repackage their foods with correct serving sizes, people can be encouraged to make better choices, have reasonable portions in ads, food labeling can be required in restaurants, and being active in society about eating healthily can make the difference. 
•  If I could ask the authors two questions, they would be:

1. Do you feel that people have adapted to the increased portions?
2. Who is more responsible: the customer or the supplier?