A Call for Women’s Portions

Call me sexist.  But you’d better call me slender too.  I know if I eat as much as a man, it won’t be long before I weigh as much as one too.  Since both men and women are shown in numerous studies to eat everything put in front of them, it’s time we offer a woman’s portion on every restaurant menu.
A 5’5” woman needs 1544 daily calories to maintain a healthy 130 pound frame.  A similarly healthy man of 5’11” , 155 pounds requires 1994 calories, a 450 point difference between the sexes each day.
The woman’s portion is simply a smaller entrée at a slightly reduced price. For any restaurant owner who thinks I want to put them out of business,  simply place that three or four dollar reduction on the man’s portion.
Why burden the restaurant with this chore? Because women can’t do it for themselves.  In fact, no one can.  The Cornell University Food and Brand lab proved this in a 2005 experiment entitled Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size may Influence Intake.  In other words, whatever you put in front of people will get eaten.
The University invited four study participants at a time to enjoy a bowl of soup in the elegant laboratory kitchen.   The partakers didn’t know two of the four bowls were rigged to slowly replenish the soup.  Everyone finished their bowl of  soup.  Everyone assumed they ate the same volume of soup and all said they were full.  However, two of the four ate 73-percent more.   Researchers concluded people cannot stop when they are full.  They stop when the food is gone.
Let’s use that information to fight obesity.  Will any restaurateur take up the challenge for a woman’s portion on the menu?

Tagged as: healthy, obesity, portion, restaurant, weight