Spoonful No.2 ~ If Pigs Could Fly...

I am, at this very moment, watching Man v. Food on the travel channel. It is a guilty pleasure of mine that leaves my feeling very hungry after watching it. Before this I was watching America's Top 10 Pig Outs, a show that highlighted the largest servings of food across the country. As much as I enjoy watching these types of shows, the feeling of hunger that I feel is equally accompanied by feelings of disgust and disturbedness (I know that's not a real word... let's pretend).

As delicious as most of the dishes look, seeing the massive portions leaves no mystery as to why the citizens of the United States are among the largest and unhealthiest in the world. Eating burgers, omelets, and pancakes larger and heavier than your first born should not be a part of your normal daily diet. Now that I mention it, it shouldn't be a part of your normal weekly or monthly diets either.

Could you imagine eating 5lbs of beef, 20 slices of cheese, 20 slices of bacon, and 5lbs of fries in one sitting?! This hefty meal has enough calories to satiate an average sized, somewhat active male/female for about 5/7.5 days. I said days people! There are 10.5/13.5 times the daily recommended grams of fat, 5.5/7 times the daily recommended protein, and 2.5/3.5 times the daily recommended grams of carbohydrates to sustain a somewhat active male/female.

I know this is an extreme example. While there aren't very many people that can put away that amount of food in one meal, all too often too many people are eating this amount of food in a day. We live in the land of wanting to get the biggest bang for your buck and cleaning your plate, the land of "if I'm not completely full then I haven't eaten enough."

And now for my humble and simple advice...

It is not always easy to eat three nutritious square meals a day with snacks in between, especially with the busy schedules we hold. The convenience of fast food tempts us at every turn. When we eat, our ultimate goal is to rid ourselves of hunger. We tend to associate the severity of our hunger pangs with the amount of food we need, but this is not the case. It doesn't matter how hungry you think you are, it won't take much to make your stomach happy. The higher the nutritional value of a food, the less of it you need to eat in order to feel satiated. Notice how I said satiated and not full. By the time your brain tells you that you are full, you have already eaten too much at one time.

Even if you find yourself eating a meal that is less than healthy (as I have often been found guilty of), don't let your eyes become bigger than your stomach. When it comes to managing our daily diets, portion size is one of the easiest things we can control.~