Addressing Obesity Through Portion Size Adjustments
In a recent discussion, an expert from the Government’s obesity programme suggested that women should be offered smaller portions than men at restaurants. This recommendation comes as part of an effort to reduce obesity rates by adapting menus to include meals with fewer calories.
Professor Naveed Sattar, who leads the Obesity Healthcare Goals programme, proposed that while normal portions should still be available for everyone, a second option with around 25 per cent less food should also be offered. This would be more suitable for women and shorter men, who typically require fewer calories than the average man.
The suggestion applies not only to restaurant meals but also to pre-packaged sandwiches, ready meals, and takeaway pizzas. Even coffee shops offering lattes and cakes could be included in this initiative. An average man needs about 2,500 calories a day, while an average woman needs around 2,000.
An article published by Professor Sattar’s team in The Lancet Diabetes And Endocrinology journal recommends that food outlets offer at least two portion sizes for single-portion, ready-to-eat products, differing by around 25 per cent. The article suggests that smaller portions should be priced fairly and could help provide more appropriate portion sizes for all smaller individuals, including children and those of short stature.
According to the experts, the higher rate of obesity in women in England could be addressed through such changes. When only one portion size is offered, women, children, and shorter people often end up consuming more calories than they need. This can lead to increased body fat over time.
The researchers noted that people often choose larger portions because they are better value for money. Additionally, social pressure to avoid food waste may lead individuals to finish their plates, even if they have eaten enough.
A Woman’s Perspective on Portion Sizes
Can I enlighten Professor Naveed Sattar, the academic who wants restaurants to offer reduced portion sizes for female diners, on how women operate? Because he clearly has no idea.
Due to the cost-of-living crisis, the hoovering, and the price of restaurant meals and babysitters, eating out is a rare occurrence. When we do go out, it’s usually for a special occasion, for which we have starved all day. Women who know they have a fancy dinner in the offing save themselves.
The professor says we are likely to clear our plates, snuffling like piggies, due to the potential shame of food waste. Is he insane?
We’ve been looking forward to this meal for days! We won’t eat tomorrow – is that good enough for you?
The only shame will come from an aproned waiter gently taking the wine list from my table, saying: “Mademoiselle, champagne is pure sugar.”
Can you imagine an Italian or French woman being told she can’t have the tiramisu or the tarte tatin?
And, as a recovering anorexic who struggles to enjoy food, I don’t want The Ivy or Caractere to be enablers: I want them to tempt me, lure me, indulge me. I want Angela Hartnett in the kitchen, not Trinny bloody Woodall.
A Different Take on Portion Sizes
I’m with the professor, though, on the subject of pre-packaged sandwiches and ready meals. These are the real villains, not for their portion size (which is meagre) but for their ingredients.
Manufacturers spike these products with addictive, entirely unhealthy and always cheap padding. I trust Gordon Ramsay’s Notting Hill kitchen far more than I trust the factories that spew out this mush.
The reason so many rely on ready meals is because not only do women hoover, we go out to work. We don’t have enough hours in the day to grow things in allotments or even cook.
And now the one time we get all sparkly, put on lippy and rest our poor bones in a banquette for a brief while, we are to be punished.
Enough. Women aren’t the problem. Restaurants aren’t the problem. The only greedy ones here are supermarkets, service stations and fast-food joints.
Women bleed. We go through childbirth. We put up with men, screaming children and the glass ceiling. We suffer enough. Get your mitts off our dinner. It’s the only pleasure we have left.
Related Questions
- Could Prue Leith’s fiery call to slash ‘ridiculous’ portion sizes help curb UK’s alarming childhood obesity crisis?
- Can cutting down takeaway outlets halt the obesity epidemic, or are drastic steps needed to battle the bulge?
- Are Britain’s waistlines doomed by supermarkets and the food industry’s irresistible offerings?
- Will the fight against food waste finally force restaurants to serve smaller portions at fair prices, or are calorie-packed meals here to stay?
- Will Britain’s bold junk food advert ban before 9pm save the nation’s health, or is it too little too late?