"Eight ounces of steak? An amuse bouche in my eyes." Until very recently I was obsessed with the bigger-is-better school of eating. I would always look for what I thought would be the biggest appetizer, the biggest main course, and the biggest dessert. Half a rack of ribs? Not enough. A four-ounce burger? Child's play—or at the very least a child's portion. Half portions of pasta were for wusses. Eight ounces of steak? An amuse bouche in my eyes. Now that I'm trying to change the way I eat and live, I'm really trying to cut down on my portion size. It's easier to do this at home, and much more difficult to do so at restaurants, where many chefs...
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Along with the shrinking value of the dollar come shrinking plates of food, as restaurateurs learn how to sneak smaller portions under your nose. A consultant at one food wholesaler has his customers doing the following: Using smaller plates (so reduced portions look the same size as before)Using lighter-weight utensils (so food feels heavier on a fork)Cooking shrimp skewered (so it doesn't curl and therefore appears larger) While nobody wants to see his buck bang less, portions at many restaurants are already so large that this may be a blessing in disguise for people trying to lose weight. Besides, isn't one age-old dieting tip to use smaller plates so that, psychologically, you feel you're getting more? [via Lara R.]...
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The New York Times has been giving a lot of coverage to Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. First Kim Severson covered it in the paper's food section last fall. Today David Leonhardt tries to apply Wansink's findings to retirement savings. Coming up next: Mindless Eating: The Musical. That's one vehicle sure to propel me to stardom....
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