Modern Portion sizes

[phoenix]

Before I got type 1, like many my weight was gradually creeping up, I lost the weigh because of diabetes. I'm now a lot more aware of how much I eat (and used to eat) my BG levels are fine but I'm very aware how easy it would be to creep up again.
I think we've got used to eating too much and one of the reasons for the general increase in weight in recent years is portion size.
The GI news reports a project where recipes in subsequent editions of a popular cookbook in the US were analysed

Examining 18 ‘classic’ recipes found in seven editions of the ‘classic’ The Joy of Cooking since it was first published in 1936 until the 2006 update, Dr Brian Wansink and Dr Collin Payne found that the average calories per serving jumped 63% in 70 years in 17 of the 18 recipes. In calories that's from about 268 calories (1125 kJ) per serving in 1936 to about 436 calories (1831 kJ) in 2006.

more here
http://ginews.blogspot.com/
and just compare the average calories in the 1936 book (even if you add some on for potatoes and veg )with the calories in a meal at somewhere like a Harvester where one course can be over 1000 calories. see
http://www.harvester.co.uk/nutritional-information.html

I've got a post war Marguerite Patten that my Granny used somewhere I'll have to compare it with my modern cookbooks.

 

[Phillip]

Re: Bigger portion size

I can not low carb as I have a colostomy bag as well and with that diet i have to have carbohydrates
Both diets counteract each other and I can not find a diet that can help my diabetes and my colostomy. If anyone can help I will be very grateful

 

[cugila]

Hi Phoenix.

Thanks for that excellent link to the nutritional info for the Harvester chain. Might just visit the one down the road now.

Ken.

 

[hanadr]

Phillip
I can't help directly, but how about you try the Bernstein or Tu diabetes websites. You might find someone there who knows the answer.
why is it imperative that you eat carbs with a colostomy? It's not something I know much about.

 

[Phillip]

It is important because if i have low carbs the bag does not work anymore and it can lead to me dying thank u for the other advice thou I will look into that

 

[hanadr]

I had a useful guide to portion sizes given to me. I apply it to myself( except for salads, which i eat by the mixing bowl full) and when cooking for baby granddaughter.
A portion of any food will fit neatly into your closed hand. Thus I know that 1 fish finger and a tablespoonul of veggies is right for the baby and 3 fish fingers is for me and whatever veggies are left. Similarly meatballs( homemade) I get 4and a bit, baby gets one and a bit. It works, baby is not telling Mummy she's been left hungry by Grandma

 

[hanadr]

Keep well philip

 

[ally5555]

portion sizes are much bigger - I have certainly noticed it in food diaries over the years.

The hand size is a good way of measuring but on a serious note you cannot use it to measure hot food - it burns!

I often give people measures that are easy - altho getting some standard measuring spoons is another way.

TBH I think this is where the FSA etc fall down - they need to be more specific in food portions and sizes!

 

[hanadr]

Absolutely ally!
Howver, I don't actually put the food into my hadn. Freshly washed or otherwise. I have enough spatial sense to judge it. I suppose I could handle baby's food, but not mine. :lol:

 

[bellapodus]

I 100% agree with you about portion sizes.

For example, I cook a lot of Japanese food (as I'm applying for a job there for next year) and where simple noodles are concerned, a portion is perfectly wrapped up in a tie.

Wrong! That one portion serves me (around 100g cooked) and my growing pre-teen son (about 150g cooked) so when you think of it, an average portion is so huge.

Incidentally, I am off to Disneyword in July and as such, will be sharing a portion of food with my mother who, in her late 60's, doesn't eat much either.

 

[hanadr]

Who saw the film "Supersize Me"?
I missed it, but wasn't it about portions?

 

[mullaneder]

it was about a bloke who could only eat from mcdonalds for a month i think and if they offered him a supersize meal he couldnt refuse .they did health checks before and after .he had went downhill rapidly

 

[mullaneder]

Super Size Me is a 2004 documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day time period (February to beginning of March 2003) during which he limits himself to only eat McDonald's food. The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. During the filming, Spurlock dined at McDonald's restaurants three times per day, sampling every item on the chain's menu at least once. He also "super-sized" his meal every time he was asked. Spurlock consumed an average of 20.92 megajoules or 5,000 cal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment. As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (1¾ stone, 11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and liver damage. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight he gained.

The stated driving factor for Spurlock's investigation was the increasing spread of obesity throughout U.S. society, which the Surgeon General has declared "epidemic," and the corresponding lawsuit brought against McDonald's on behalf of two overweight girls, who, it was alleged, became obese as a result of eating McDonald's food. Spurlock points out that although the lawsuit against McDonald's failed (and subsequently many state legislatures have legislated against product liability actions against producers and distributors of "fast food"), much of the same criticism leveled against the tobacco companies applies to fast food franchises, although it could be argued that fast food, though physiologically addictive and more physically harmful,[1][2] is not as addictive as
nicotine

 

[phoenix]

I'm old enough to remember the first Wimpy bars,a hamburger and chips then was a small hamburger as in a childs portion today.

 

[bellapodus]

I agree Phoenix. The burgers you got when I was a kid were burgers and not what can only be described as a slab of ground meat in a bun.

 

[cjohnson]

Burgers now seem to be addictive too. When I have a macdonalds (on rare occasions and even rarer since diagnosis!) I always feel like I want another the day after and so on ......... :evil:

I remember Wimpy ones too and they were smaller though probably had less beef in them than modern ones!

CJ

 

[jumbleannie]

Thank goodness I can't abide burgers from Mac Donalds, Burger King or any other commertial outlet. Certainly couldn't get addicted to them! I remember those burgers from years ago and it was like eating cardboard in a bun, put me off for life. Yuk. Do enjoy the homemade ones though. Mine are more like a kebab, lot's of spices and garlic in. One of those in a bun with salad is enough to fill me well and truly. Actually skip the bun and bung it in a pitta bread, even better and you can contain the salad and hot sauce better. :twisted: Thats done it. Now I want one and I have nothing to make it with to hand. :roll: May have to have curry instead.

 

[esmecullen]

I'm a McDonalds hater... just so carboardy tasting, not that I've ever eaten carboard

Just a quick question on portion size - when I was first diagnosed and given the standard diet sheet, when it came to potato's it said 3 egg sized potato's per meal. Now forgive me if I'm stupid but how the hell am I supposed to pick out at the supermarket, potato's exactly the same size as an egg?? :lol:

 

[kegstore]

Portion? Could mean anything depending on who's estimating. Not a very reliable way of measuring, but then this is coming from someone with an obsession for weighing absolutely everything with a hint of carb about it, but knowledge is power and all that? And to back that up, my insulin/carb ratio works in grams not portions...

McDonald's? Yeuch! Although never a prolific visitor to their establishments I stopped eating the products completely in 1990 after a news article about their open funding of the IRA. Don't know whether it was true but it was enough to get me off the muck and I've never missed it at all! :mrgreen: Homemade is best - you know it makes sense!

 

[maisiesgranny]

from maisesgranny good luck phillip. i know a lovely lady who has a bag. i'll ask her if she has any tips. and thanks handra for thr harvester list. great!