Portion sizes and the death of North America

Obesity in North America is a problem, one that has become apparent in the last few years. About three or four years ago, a movie called Super Size Me came out, talking about how North America's health problems are complicated by increasing portion sizes at fast food restaurants.

For a year or two, smaller was in vogue. McDonald's even removed its Super Size options, and you didn't see too many people walking around with Big Gulps from 7-11 in their hands. But that was when we were in good times, with credit easy, and there is nothing like larger portions in a recession, when one wants nothing more than to get the most for their money.

On the last Saturday in March, the sun was out and we had a beautiful 15 degrees. Since I have decided to emancipate myself from Ottawa's bus system as thoroughly as possible this year, taking my car and motorcycle when able, I have also decided that my bicycle and rollerblades are going to be part of my workout plan. So I decided that I would finally get off my rear and get my bike rerady for spring. I spent the first two hours of my afternoon adjusting the brakes, oiling the chain, and washing the bike, which had become saturated in dust from the construction at my building last year. Then I decided to go for a spin. I drove down to Tunney's, then decided I needed to get a little bit of shopping in, so took the Ottawa River Parkway up to Lincoln Fields. When I got there, I decided that it was nearing supper time anyway, and my hour and a half of cycling, plus the hour that would be needed to get home, had earned me some fast food.

When I worked for Meyers, I had fast food every day. Every single weekday I would either have the whopper combo at Burger King, or a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger combo at Wendy's. Since then, it would be alot to say that I have fast food once a month. Well, it seems that smaller is not in vogue anymore. The combo, which used to come with a medium drink and fry, now comes with a small drink and fry. Except the portion size has not changed. There is now a medium and large combo available, and the large comes with damned near a litre of cola. No wonder we have so much obesity and diabetes in North America, our portion sizes of unhealthy fats and sugars are out of control.

Now my eating habits are not a shining example of virtue. Far from it, I tend to eat whatever I want, including more than my fair share of pop and potato chips. Still, this new medium and large that I saw are at the point that I would consider disgusting. One can no longer even order a portion that would have been medium when I was little, let alone a small. The problem with fast food is that generally it is very tasty, so it is very hard to resist just eating all of it anyway. I did scarf down all of my fries, and probably negated at least the calories and fat burnt in one direction of my cycling. I cannot imaging how much of a calorie and fat surplus I would have built up had I had the "Large" combo, with its gigantic cola.

While a larger portion for a few cents more may seem like a bargain in these hard times, overeating will still cause long term health problems. Especially for the Americans, this is something to keep in mind, as health care south of the border isn't free. Instead of getting the larger combo meal, we should be considering eating in more often. In retrospect, I am glad that I am not having fast for lunch everyday anymore.