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Seizing up sizes

Having food in portions makes all the difference

"Buy a large pizza and get 50 percent discount on the second pizza." Chicken biryani for three costs only 50 percent more than biryani for one. Everything edible appears to be cheaper if you buy it in super size. And serving sizes of single units of food - a plate of chicken biryani or a plate meal, are becoming bigger. This spells bad news for the obese.

Food flood

In the West, portion sizes are increasingly being recognised as an important cause of the obesity epidemic. France, where obesity is still rare, offers an interesting contrast to the West when it comes to portion sizes. French cuisine is rich in fat, and fat constitutes a relatively major proportion of a French meal. Sure, they also eat lots of fresh fruit, fish, olive oil and nuts, but there is no getting away from the brie, cheese, pastries and butter. But the French are still a remarkably slim people. French portions are small, something Americans love to crib about on their travels to France. But the French are not any less satisfied with their food portions when compared with their big-eating North American cousins.

So how does one explain the French paradox? Psychology, it appears, has the answer. Research shows that if food is reasonably palatable, people tend to eat what is put in front of them and generally consume more when offered more.

People think it is appropriate to consume a single unit of whatever is put in front of them: they are less likely to actually think of what the single unit comprises. This is why people will eat a medium pizza without thinking of it as actually two small pizzas that individually would have been equally satisfying. Psychologically, their satiety mechanisms do not kick in until they are done with a single unit - whatever the actual size of it.

Think small

Smaller portion sizes work for the same reason. Because the single unit preference appears to be hardwired in the human psyche, people eating smaller portions of the same food (like the French) report similar satiety rates as big portion eaters. Another trick is to use smaller plates.

Food that occupies a bigger proportion of a serving dish tends to seen as in bigger quantity. If you like big portions, have water-rich foods like fruit, soups, and stews, that don't have too much fat.

RAJIV. M

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