Reply #100: No, [View All]

for the 901st time, I support the FDA requiring that restaurants at least offer a normal size portion and then in addition to that whatever larger sizes they see fit. No one is saying restaurants can't serve a 3 pound slab of meat. I'm just saying if they do, they should also be required to offer a 3 oz steak.

You couldn't buy water in the last few fast food restaurants I was in and given the amount of salt in the food, not drinking anything with it wasn't really an option. Of course no one is forcing anyone to buy a soda (or to go to the restaurant in the first place). Given that I am buying a soda, however, why is the smallest size, the "child" size, still larger than the recommended portion size for adults?

Is it so hard to believe that the pervasive habit of packaging 2-5 servings of food as 1 serving (with a tiny label no one reads) has contributed to widespread misconceptions and lack of perspective about appropriate portions which has in turn led to an increase in obesity? I don't know where you shop, but when I lived in the U.S. I never saw a package of chicken breasts smaller than 6 or 8 to a pack. And again those chicken breasts are twice the size of what you buy in other countries. I never saw less than a pound of hamburger. A can of Campbell's soup is really 2.5 servings (who freezes half a can a soup?) A cup of yogurt is more than 2 servings. A frickin' Snickers bar is 2 servings. Of course if you're paying obsessive attention to your weight you could eat half a cup of yogurt and refrigerate the rest but nobody actually does this and the companies know this. That's why they don't sell food packaged as single portions. The "free market" obviously isn't taking care of this because the companies know that psychologically people don't want to waste food and they will continue to package food in ways that strongly encourage people to eat more than is healthy for them so they can charge them more for it.

It's not up to the government to enforce your eating habits but it is up to the government to protect you from predatory and irresponsible business practices. If a gas station refused to sell you less than 40 gallons of gas at a time (hey, use a can and save the rest for later!) don't you think the government would be all over it? If a pharmaceutical company only sold pills at double dosages and in twice the quantity required (people can cut the pills in half! and save the rest for the next time they're sick! if they overdose, they're just stupid and lack willpower!) wouldn't the government have a place intervening? So why is it totally unreasonable to ask that the government regulate the food industries marketing practices (and not your eating practices despite what people on this thread seem to insist on calling it)?