Do You See What I See?

Do you see what I see?

I was unloading my dishwasher today and I noticed a pattern.

Can you see it?

There are three times as many small plates as there are large plates.

What you probably can't see is that there are a multitude of regular sized teaspoons and only three large, tablespoon sized spoons.

Pre-WW I always ate off of large plates and I used the large spoons because I was only concerned with getting as much as I could as fast as I could.

I know we've all heard or read about the idea of using smaller plates and utensils but this really is quite significant.  

This was another one of my favorite parts of reading Mindless Eating:  Why We Eat More Than We Think.

Studies have been done to show that we do in fact eat a whole lot more if the container we're eating out of is large.  

That's why buying a big, family sized bag of chips is dangerous.  

If you buy and individual bag at least you'll be limited to one serving instead of ten or so.  

The positive here is that this one small change can be really significant.  

You may not see it all at once but gradually you'll notice your waistline slimming down because over the course of a full year the calorie reduction would still be significant if you changed nothing else.

I'm still amazed when I go antiquing and look at all the old glasses and dinnerware.  

They're so, so much smaller.  They're quite beautiful but they're also significantly smaller.

Most of them would really only hold one serving size.  Nowadays we'd look at that as a rip off.

But in reality that's all our bodies need.

The dinnerware got bigger and so did our waistlines.

The good news is that we can choose to make the dinnerware smaller again and so our dress size can once again normalize.  

It's really about taking our power back and not being manipulated by the food and restaurant industries.

In competition with each other over the years they've progressively increased the amount of food they give us with all-you-can-eat specials.

They've genetically and chemically enhanced our food to look pretty and to be addictive.

As we become conscious of what and how we eat we can get back to a more health-centered and loving way of eating real food.

It's something I'm still working on.

But it's worth it.

I'm worth it.

And so are you!