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CNN Live Today
'Daily Dose'
Aired January 22, 2003 - 11:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Americans are piling more food on their plates and more pounds on their bodies. It's not just fast food that's being supersized these days. A new study finds that even the portions that people eat at home are getting larger. That along with the country's collective waistline, too, we might add.
Now this portion distortion, if you will, and it's role in the nation's weight problem is a topic in our daily dose of health news this morning, and our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is checking in with a little show and tell for us.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we will have some show-and-tell later.
Now portion sizes, everything from soda to desert to Mexican food that's has been going up, up, up. There's a new study that looked at portions in 1977 and compared them to 1996.
You can see here, these are just gigantic portions of food. Those are each for one person -- for one person. No one needs that much food. And so what happens when people eat that much food? They get fat. And studies have shown when you put that much food in front of people, they actually do eat it; even if they're feeling full, they actually do eat it.
Let's take a look at a typical American meal. For example, if you look at soft drinks from 1977 to 1996, those went up by 49 calories because the portions got so much bigger. Hamburgers increased by 97 calories per burger from 1977 to 1996. French fries up 68 calories during that time period.
If you put all that have together so you've got yourself a meal of a soda, a burger and fries, that's 214 more calories per meal in '96 versus in 1977, because the portions got so much bigger, and as Leon said, that's reflected in our waistline.
In 1971, 14 percent of Americans were obese. Now it's one-third of Americans are obese.
HEMMER: So that begs the question, what do the experts say is a healthy size for us to eat then of these portions, and if we can do this, I'd like to compare it with those pancakes we just saw.
COHEN: So much smaller. We have some props here that can help you figure it out. When you go to eat meat, let's say you go to eat a steak, eat something that's about the size of this deck of cards. I'm not kidding. Isn't that incredible? That's what your supposed to eat.
And if you're going to get a side dish, let's say you're going to get a side of potato salad, let say, it's supposed to be about the size, the portion should be about the size of this tennis ball. So you can imagine a deck of cards and a tennis ball on your plate. That's what the portion of meat and side dish is supposed to be.
Now the problem, of course, is that that's not what real people really do.
HARRIS: Thank you. If I ate like that, I'd look like Ghandi, you've got to be kidding me, come on.
COHEN: You're a large person and you work out a lot, you exercise a lot. So if you're a really athletic person, yes, you probably need to eat more than that. But we're talking about your average sized American person. If you're going to eat that, that's your dinner, something similar for lunch, something similar for breakfast. That's all the calories you need.
HARRIS: Elizabeth, You are a nice, dainty little person. You could you eat twice that, couldn't you? If that was a piece of salmon or something, a scoop of potatoes, you mean to tell me you would eat that and be satisfied for the rest of the day?
COHEN: I'm telling you If I ate that for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner, that would be fine; if I ate much more I would gain weight.
HARRIS: All right, fine, so whose fault it all this? I know we have to blame it on somebody? Is it the consumer here? Is it the restaurants? Is it efficiencies now in the way that we produce food? What?
COHEN: A lot of people will tell you that it's all of the above. Now some people point their finger at the food industry, and they'll say, why do fast food restaurants always suggest super size it. If you go to McDonald's and ask for a small fries, they're going to tell you, would you like to super size that, ma'am? Well, when you ask the industry, they'll say, well, you know what, it's the consumers fault. They want this. When we put this in front of them, they want it, it sells, and we're in the business of giving people what they want.
HARRIS: That's like asking a kid, you want 10 cookies or just one.
COHEN: Exactly. Exactly. They're going to say 10, that's right.
HARRIS: Thanks, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Cohen.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 22, 2003 - 11:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Americans are piling more food on their plates and more pounds on their bodies. It's not just fast food that's being supersized these days. A new study finds that even the portions that people eat at home are getting larger. That along with the country's collective waistline, too, we might add.
Now this portion distortion, if you will, and it's role in the nation's weight problem is a topic in our daily dose of health news this morning, and our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is checking in with a little show and tell for us.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we will have some show-and-tell later.
Now portion sizes, everything from soda to desert to Mexican food that's has been going up, up, up. There's a new study that looked at portions in 1977 and compared them to 1996.
You can see here, these are just gigantic portions of food. Those are each for one person -- for one person. No one needs that much food. And so what happens when people eat that much food? They get fat. And studies have shown when you put that much food in front of people, they actually do eat it; even if they're feeling full, they actually do eat it.
Let's take a look at a typical American meal. For example, if you look at soft drinks from 1977 to 1996, those went up by 49 calories because the portions got so much bigger. Hamburgers increased by 97 calories per burger from 1977 to 1996. French fries up 68 calories during that time period.
If you put all that have together so you've got yourself a meal of a soda, a burger and fries, that's 214 more calories per meal in '96 versus in 1977, because the portions got so much bigger, and as Leon said, that's reflected in our waistline.
In 1971, 14 percent of Americans were obese. Now it's one-third of Americans are obese.
HEMMER: So that begs the question, what do the experts say is a healthy size for us to eat then of these portions, and if we can do this, I'd like to compare it with those pancakes we just saw.
COHEN: So much smaller. We have some props here that can help you figure it out. When you go to eat meat, let's say you go to eat a steak, eat something that's about the size of this deck of cards. I'm not kidding. Isn't that incredible? That's what your supposed to eat.
And if you're going to get a side dish, let's say you're going to get a side of potato salad, let say, it's supposed to be about the size, the portion should be about the size of this tennis ball. So you can imagine a deck of cards and a tennis ball on your plate. That's what the portion of meat and side dish is supposed to be.
Now the problem, of course, is that that's not what real people really do.
HARRIS: Thank you. If I ate like that, I'd look like Ghandi, you've got to be kidding me, come on.
COHEN: You're a large person and you work out a lot, you exercise a lot. So if you're a really athletic person, yes, you probably need to eat more than that. But we're talking about your average sized American person. If you're going to eat that, that's your dinner, something similar for lunch, something similar for breakfast. That's all the calories you need.
HARRIS: Elizabeth, You are a nice, dainty little person. You could you eat twice that, couldn't you? If that was a piece of salmon or something, a scoop of potatoes, you mean to tell me you would eat that and be satisfied for the rest of the day?
COHEN: I'm telling you If I ate that for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner, that would be fine; if I ate much more I would gain weight.
HARRIS: All right, fine, so whose fault it all this? I know we have to blame it on somebody? Is it the consumer here? Is it the restaurants? Is it efficiencies now in the way that we produce food? What?
COHEN: A lot of people will tell you that it's all of the above. Now some people point their finger at the food industry, and they'll say, why do fast food restaurants always suggest super size it. If you go to McDonald's and ask for a small fries, they're going to tell you, would you like to super size that, ma'am? Well, when you ask the industry, they'll say, well, you know what, it's the consumers fault. They want this. When we put this in front of them, they want it, it sells, and we're in the business of giving people what they want.
HARRIS: That's like asking a kid, you want 10 cookies or just one.
COHEN: Exactly. Exactly. They're going to say 10, that's right.
HARRIS: Thanks, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Cohen.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
