First, if your childhood was similar to mine, you were told to eat everything on your plate. We need to change our approach and teach our kids to eat what they need, not what we tell them they need. The message of this study is that kids left to their own devices will eat what they need if we limit their portions to reasonably sized ones. Second, when you look objectively at the portions which we are presented, it is apparent the they are getting larger and larger. Think about the serving sizes of popcorn and soda that you are encouraged to buy in a movie theater.
Few people turn down the offer to go for the super sizes for just a few pennies more.
Similar offers are always available in convenience stores. Also, think of the absurdity of a fast food meal consisting of a triple decker cheeseburger with a super size serving of fries, and a colossal sized Coke. This single meals would provide over sixty grams of fat, largely saturated fat and an abundance of dangerous trans-fatty acids, as well as tons of empty calories in terms of sugar. Last year while on vacation, I was standing in line at a frozen yogurt stand behind a group of Scottish tourists. I could not help but to overhear their comments about how stunned they were by the amount of yogurt contained in the large size serving.