The government says a serving of fries numbers 10. No wonder the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported just 6 weeks ago that a record 61 percent of Americans are overweight, up from 55 percent only a few years ago. Not just main-dish items, but desserts, too, are outsized. A Pecanbon from Cinnabon, the outlet whose sweet odor wafts through malls and airports, contains 1,100 calories. And a single, 2.5 ounce milk chocolate cookie from Mrs. Fields has 280.
Liquid calories are also over the top because of super-sizing.
A 12-ounce can of soda has about 150 calories. That is, when you drink a lot of soda, fruit juice, sugared tea, and other high-calorie beverages, you don't compensate by eating less of other items. Researchers at Indiana's Purdue University demonstrated the point when they asked a group of people to eat 450 calories' worth of jelly beans for 4 weeks and then asked them to drink 450 calories' worth of soft drinks for another 4 weeks. During the jelly-bean leg of the study, the subjects automatically reduced their intake of other foods by about 450 calories, so they did not end up eating more calories overall. The act of biting and chewing, the researchers hypothesize, may trigger internal satiety signals that swigging a liquid does not.