Before you tuck into your next meal - measure it! That's the message from health experts who believe people are "passively consuming" larger food servings having once settled for less.
Warning of a creeping "supersizing" of food portions, Dr Sinead McCarthy, of the department of clinical medicine at Trinity College Dublin, said higher rates of obesity in Ireland were directly linked to bigger servings in food outlets.
A study of eating habits among 1,400 adults conducted by the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance found that the biggest determinant in weight gain was the size of food portions rather than the type of food consumed.
"Everyone [ in the study] was eating the same foods but the obese group were eating that bit more," Dr McCarthy told a major meeting of public health experts in Co Cavan yesterday.
"A lot of people don't realise they are being served larger portion sizes. If a single portion of food is put in front of you - regardless of whether it's an ordinary sandwich, a double-decker or a triple-decker - you tend to eat the whole thing."
The impact on weight was exacerbated by the fact that "we don't have good control mechanisms in terms of appetite. If we have more now, we don't tend to reduce later."
She noted that in the US the average cookie size had increased by up to seven times, and the average serving of chips by 1.5 times.
In Ireland, crisp packets were now 80 per cent bigger than before, "and that's excluding the extra 50 per cent for free" which they tended to offer, said Dr McCarthy.
Fast-food outlets have come in for particular criticism in recent months, prompting McDonalds to withdraw its "supersize" servings of chips and fizzy drinks. The decision followed the release of Supersize Me, in which film-maker Morgan Spurlock gained 25 lbs after eating three McDonalds meals a day for 30 consecutive days.
The two-day Tackling Obesity Together conference, which ended in Co Cavan yesterday, also heard that people who took part in a 20-week exercise and diet regime in Limerick enjoyed a significant improvement in their health.
But those who either just exercised or only took part in the dietary element of the programme saw no such improvement.
Dr Ciaran MacDonncha, of the University of Limerick, said participants in the study, who combined a balanced diet with three hours of intense physical activity a week, lost 2 per cent of their body fat in just 20 weeks.
"People with obesity need to take exercise like they're taking a pill - every day," he said.
