4 ms·

Another useful economic choice, at least in the USA right now, is to only eat half your order and save the rest for the next day's lunch or dinner. I'd guess t

Another useful economic choice, at least in the USA right now, is to only eat half your order and save the rest for the next day's lunch or dinner. I'd guess that the cost of food has not risen as much as the cost of labor, and so in the last twenty years or so (again, in the USA) restaurants have been giving out larger and larger meals, perhaps in hopes that you'll see them as a better deal and eat there. My wife and I fall in the "weird diet" and "allergies" bins (which more determines the restaurant), but we share bites occasionally.

killbrad 10y ago
Depends on the restaurant, but I'd agree - portion sizes in the US are huge and usually enough for two meals. The problem is that people tend to just eat it all because, well, it's there (and I'll include myself in this bucket most of the time).
- kalleboo 10y ago
  > The problem is that people tend to just eat it all because, well, it's there And if you were raised with parents who always made you eat everything on your plate, it's also physiologically embedded that you should eat everything.
  - maccard 10y ago
    Well you should; it's wasteful not to. But if you find yourself regularly not eating portions you are makin for yourself, try makin smaller portions!
    - hueving 10y ago
      >Well you should; it's wasteful not to. Not if it's putting you over your daily caloric limit. The damage being overweight does to you (and society from healthcare burden) in the long term is much worse than just throwing the food away.
      - maccard 10y ago
        If you're regularly throwing food away you should be buying less food.
        hueving 10y ago
        The context of this thread was portion sizes at restaurants. US restaurants tend to serve well north of a thousand calories for a single meal.
- ghaff 10y ago
  >portion sizes in the US are huge and usually enough for two meals I see this claim made a lot. Certainly, some restaurants serve large portions--especially bulked up with cheap ingredients like potatoes. But I travel quite a bit, including internationally, and I don't really come out of restaurants in other countries commonly thinking "oh the portions are tiny here." It is true that some cuisines are built around the idea of having a number of courses and/or mains so, in that case, one dish is going to be smaller. But, at least at most of the places where I eat, I don't find US restaurants to universally serve abnormally large portions.

killbrad 10y ago

Depends on the restaurant, but I'd agree - portion sizes in the US are huge and usually enough for two meals. The problem is that people tend to just eat it all because, well, it's there (and I'll include myself in this bucket most of the time).

kalleboo 10y ago
> The problem is that people tend to just eat it all because, well, it's there And if you were raised with parents who always made you eat everything on your plate, it's also physiologically embedded that you should eat everything.
- maccard 10y ago
  Well you should; it's wasteful not to. But if you find yourself regularly not eating portions you are makin for yourself, try makin smaller portions!
  - hueving 10y ago
    >Well you should; it's wasteful not to. Not if it's putting you over your daily caloric limit. The damage being overweight does to you (and society from healthcare burden) in the long term is much worse than just throwing the food away.
    - maccard 10y ago
      If you're regularly throwing food away you should be buying less food.
      - hueving 10y ago
        The context of this thread was portion sizes at restaurants. US restaurants tend to serve well north of a thousand calories for a single meal.
ghaff 10y ago
>portion sizes in the US are huge and usually enough for two meals I see this claim made a lot. Certainly, some restaurants serve large portions--especially bulked up with cheap ingredients like potatoes. But I travel quite a bit, including internationally, and I don't really come out of restaurants in other countries commonly thinking "oh the portions are tiny here." It is true that some cuisines are built around the idea of having a number of courses and/or mains so, in that case, one dish is going to be smaller. But, at least at most of the places where I eat, I don't find US restaurants to universally serve abnormally large portions.