Slimmers still battling with portion size

Advertisers are finding new ways to sell the public bigger portions of food.

While slimmers may be wise to the use of words like “supersize”, Kate Walker from BeNiceToYou.com said that manufacturers are now labelling larger portions in a more emotive way.

“Supersized portions are again on the rise and just because the marketing people call it something else, like ‘The Kid’s Challenge’ (named as such because it weighs as much as a child at 9lb of food doesn’t make it okay,” she explained.

However, the problem is that describing something as a challenge means that people consider finishing the huge meal a victory, and those who indulge are champions.

Ms Walker said that as a consequence, people are losing perspective of what a normal portion looks like and feel short-changed when they get a meal of the size they should be eating.

The findings follow a study led by Stephanie Greer, a graduate student at the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of California, which found that tired people are more likely to have a bad diet.

Do you think portions have got too big?