Portion size key to French paradox?

[Chris Malc]

A press release from the University of Pennsylania suggests
that an important reason why the French consumption of rich
fatty foods doesn't lead to the expected rates of
cardiovascular etc. disease is simply that in total they just
eat less food.

"They found the mean portion size across all Paris
establishments was 277 grams, compared to a mean in
Philadelphia of 346 grams -- 25 percent more than in Paris."

"Philadelphia's Chinese restaurants served meals that were on
average 72 percent heftier than those served by Chinese
restaurants in Paris."

"...a candy bar sold in Philadelphia was 41 percent larger
than the same product in Paris, a soft drink was 52 percent
larger, a hot dog was 63 percent larger and a carton of yogurt
was 82 percent larger."

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=272

--
Chris Malcolm cam@infirmatics.ed.ac.uk +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD
#205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9
3JZ, UK [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

[John The M]

>Subject: Portion size key to French paradox? From:
>cam@holyrood.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)

cam stands for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Just thought that you might want to know. :)

[Tcomeau]

cam@holyrood.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) wrote in message
news:<bid119$rc0$1@scotsman.ed.ac.uk>...
> A press release from the University of Pennsylania suggests
> that an important reason why the French consumption of rich
> fatty foods doesn't lead to the expected rates of
> cardiovascular etc. disease is simply that in total they
> just eat less food.
>
> "They found the mean portion size across all Paris
> establishments was 277 grams, compared to a mean in
> Philadelphia of 346 grams -- 25 percent more than in Paris."
>
> "Philadelphia's Chinese restaurants served meals that were
> on average 72 percent heftier than those served by Chinese
> restaurants in Paris."
>
> "...a candy bar sold in Philadelphia was 41 percent larger
> than the same product in Paris, a soft drink was 52 percent
> larger, a hot dog was 63 percent larger and a carton of
> yogurt was 82 percent larger."
>
> http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=272

53 gallons of soda per year per capita in the US.

TC

[Mooshie Pe]

On 25 Aug 2003 17:07:16 -0700, tunderbar@hotmail.com
(tcomeau) posted:

>cam@holyrood.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) wrote in message
>news:<bid119$rc0$1@scotsman.ed.ac.uk>...
>> A press release from the University of Pennsylania suggests
>> that an important reason why the French consumption of rich
>> fatty foods doesn't lead to the expected rates of
>> cardiovascular etc. disease is simply that in total they
>> just eat less food.
>>
>> "They found the mean portion size across all Paris
>> establishments was 277 grams, compared to a mean in
>> Philadelphia of 346 grams -- 25 percent more than in
>> Paris."
>>
>> "Philadelphia's Chinese restaurants served meals that were
>> on average 72 percent heftier than those served by Chinese
>> restaurants in Paris."
>>
>> "...a candy bar sold in Philadelphia was 41 percent larger
>> than the same product in Paris, a soft drink was 52 percent
>> larger, a hot dog was 63 percent larger and a carton of
>> yogurt was 82 percent larger."
>>
>> http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=272
>
>53 gallons of soda per year per capita in the US.

How does this relate to portion sizes? Do you think that the
large American portion sizes influence this annual
consumption? That's only about 220 calories per day. Fine if
you are doing heavy work, but far too much for a sedentary
individual to waste on empty energy.