The Friday Fight: Portions Sizes Increase in the Last Supper!
Posted by Natalie Deangelo on Thu, Jun 24, 2010 @ 10:41 PM
Happy Friday Fighters! I hope everyone is enjoying the start of summer!
As I was teaching my weight loss class this week, I asked the class things they saw in their environments that supported weight gain. Of course, I got some pretty helfty answers, including huge portion sizes, bad airport food, and the like. But, one of the most startling was when my client, Susan O. mentioned a TV show about a couple looking for a new home. The couple was looking at a home built in the 1940's. When they moved in, their plates didn't fit in the kitchen cupboards. Why? Because plate sizes have DOUBLED since then. Hence, so have portion sizes.
So, just in time for the Friday Fight, I thought it would be interesting to google "plate size increase," and I found a startling article from USA today . Not only have portions sizes actually increased by 69%, our "idea" of a normal size plate has increased as well. The proof? Plate sizes have increased in artwork of the oldest dinner in history..the last supper.
"Two researchers analyzed the food and plate sizes in 52 of the most famous paintings of The Last Supper and found that the portion sizes in the paintings have increased dramatically over the past millennium, from years 1000 to 2000
Using a computer program, they compared the size of loaves of bread, main dishes and plates to the size of the heads of the disciples and Jesus in the artwork, including Leonardo da Vinci's famous depiction of the event.
Findings published in April's International Journal of Obesity: Over that 1,000-year period, the main course size increased by 69%, plate size 66% and loaves of bread 23%. The biggest increases in size came after 1500.
Now, I'm not about to get religous. You can believe whatever you want. However, this isn't about religion, it's about a shift in cultural norms. And today's artists are painting what they think is the norm. HUGE plates, HUGE portions. It really tells us something about our society's views on food.
This really gives us something to think about. Next time you are at a restaurant, ask yourself what you would do if they gave you half of that plate... Would it be your last supper there? (yup, I couldn't resist a pun!) Would you think you weren't getting your dollars worth or it wasn't enough to eat? If so, retrain your brain, because half the plate is probably a healthy portion!
Check out the plate size increase in the artwork here:
