William T Goodall wrote:
On 1 Nov 2006, at 10:34PM, Gary Nunn wrote:
In the last year, I've changed some habits, lost some weight and tried
to be
a little more aware of what I'm eating and what the portion size was.
About a month ago, my daughter and I went to Applebee's for dinner. The
somewhat traditional thing is to get a salad bar and an entrée. I
ordered a
cheeseburger and a baked potato. By the time I had a salad and one of
the
rolls from the basketful they put in front of you while your waiting,
I was
stuffed. By the time my meal came, had I eaten anything more, I would
have
been miserable. It turned out that my "modest" cheeseburger was a full
half
pound of beef, with a huge bun, and the baked potato was also very
large. I
couldn't touch them.
While we sat there, I watched the people at the next table each eat a
salad
plate piled up with salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, vegetables
and all
of the other peripheral stuff on salad bars. This same table, devoured 2
baskets of rolls between 3 people, and then devoured their meal
completely.
I've read before, that the US serves larger portions than many other
countries, but I was never really aware of just how much until that
night at
Applebee's.
That reminds me of the scientific study about why the French were able
to eat high-fat French cuisine without getting obese - the answer was
smaller portions!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3173997.stm
But now the French are having an obesity epidemic thanks to fast food :
"While adult obesity is rising about 6 percent annually, among children
the national rate of growth is 17 percent. At that rate, the French
could be - quelle horreur - as fat as Americans by 2020."
"McDonald's is more profitable in France than anywhere else in Europe.
Sales have increased 42 percent over the past five years. Some 1.2
million French, or 2 percent of the population, eat there every day."
http://tinyurl.com/yfz3jo
I think another thing that the French have going for them is that they
tend to do more walking than most Americans, and use fewer elevators and
more stairs. That's not a trivial difference!
Oh, and Pat, if you're still looking at my list of things I threw out as
ways to control portions, etc., I believe that at McDonald's, you're
allowed to get apple slices instead of the fries with the Happy Meals,
which ought to be helpful!
Julia
using the stairs as much as possible
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