American Portion Control

icemoose

The Diet Guy
Oh my word portion control in America is literally out of control!

Having spent the past 3 weeks in the states in is phenomenal what you get and a real concern.

I went to Perkins for breakfast and ordered a jalapeno omellete (sp!) as I love them and it arrived, it is made with 8 eggs (yes 8!) and with a plate of hash browns on the site and free of charge (ready for this!!) you get 3 buttermilk pancakes (hand sized) and a mammoth muffin (huge thing!). And it was only 5 dollars (about £2.50)

My little one had a city slicker which was designed for kids, it had 2 fried eggs, three sausages, 3 bits of bacon and a load of hash browns, after he had finished they gave him a 6 inch cookie in a bag to eat in the car, the cost !! some 2 english pounds.

Don't get me wrong the food tasted great but out of control portion sizes and prices like that kinds of explains why there are so many big people over there, I have to say I did notice this year that so many americans are bigger than us, and it is the whole family and not just one or two members.

M.
 
But the buring question is Mike.... did you EAT all of your breakfast fayre..??

TT xx
 
I went to the States a couple of months ago and was also amazed at all the food. Everything was HUGE and soo cheap. Starters or even side salads/veg were big enough to be a main and some spare. And whenever you order meat you always get most of a cow. I went off the diet big-time there - there was just too much temptation - even checking into the hotel we got given free cookies. It's really weird as in many ways they're more image and health-conscious than us Brits but the portions and mad and there seem to be a lot more morbidly obese people than here - I felt pretty slim over there!
 
I tended to indulge when we went out for nice meals but I didn't "snack" like I used to with the chocolate, churros, pretzels, turkey legs! , candly floss and popcorn.

You do a lot of walking obviously which helps but if I had a desk job over there it would be hard not to put weight on, I would say at least 50% of the holiday makers in Disney were obese.

When you have signs up on the freeway saying "Eat as much as you like and take home a doggy baskey" for £5 then it isn't hard to understand why.

Jo ordered "skinny moons" in Denny's which is a light version of eggs benedict and the girl said no one had ever ordered it before !!

M.
 
my cousin moved to florida 2 yeasr ago and she has gained over 7 stone just through all the temptations
you have to be very strong willed to live there
i couldn`t do it i`d give in to easily

well done mike for not going over the top :D
 
Well I hold my hands up and admit, whilst I never over indulged in States last year (Only made the mistake once of ordering a starter, main AND pudding and most of it was left!), I have every intention of enjoying myself when we go next year. (a huge ambition to loose the weight NOW and be able to maintain and control)

I will be cautious.. but no way am I not having at least one Churro.

We tended to have only one decent meal a day, having either breakfast in Shoneys, a full day in a park and then a meal on the way back to the villa, or we'd have breakfast in the villa and a meal at night, or if we had a meal during the day, it was a bowl of fruit at the villa for supper (we had to buy in fruit and veg as we started to CRAVE it after a few days how mad is that.)

We went to Crackerbarrel and my veggi mate (who eats fish and chicken) had ordered the Chicken with dumplings and veg. The meal came and it had non-veggi gravy on. She called over the waiter to explain and he said ".. well you won't eat the veg either - we cook it in BACON FAT!..' is it any wonder they grow them supersize over the pond?!

Flicking through a menu in Red Lobster. At the back they had all info for like if you were on a GI diet, this diet, other diet, nutrient and fat content etc. A salad. No dressing. No croutons. 9g of FAT. How?! Why?! What do they do to the food over there?

Still mad about the place though! x
 
OK - now I'm scared! :eek:

I'm going to the States in September - driving from New Orleans to Nashville via Memphis. It should be a great trip .. but I'm worried that the food situation will be a real problem :sigh:
 
Hi Mike,

Was good to see you and Jo in IOA! We had a 4 hour flight delay yesterday so didn't leave orlando until midnight! (5am over here!) so a bit tired! As I said to Jo whilst over there, we ad very little compared to what we normally have! Yes the portion sizes are massive! i ordered green beans with my steak and they came fried! YES! FRIED! All the salads are covered in oil and mayo! We had just an entree, no straters or desserts at any time! I weighed this morning and I have put on 3lbs! I am so chuffed! I thought I would have put on more!

We kept going round the parks and kept pointing to people saying "cambridge, cambridge!"

Did you notice how many large people on scooters? They get priority to get on the rides before anyone else because they are less abled (not less abed to eat!!!) and then park outside the food outlets and run to the counter! I mean, I sat next to a guy on a ride that had to take up 2 seats! I felt like a skinny thing out there! We went on Jimmy nutrons in Universal, and they had to take a lady off the ride as they could not close the restraints! She was huge! And you get a fair amount of room on those things! I was shocked at how much room I had this year! And I did not get so tired as last year, and no chaffing!!!!! Or feet hurt as much!

Oh and to cap it off, On Thursday, I was thrown up on on space mountain! Disney gave me a new pair of shorts, a new t-shirt and a new handbag to replace all my stuff I was wearing! Was not the greatest expeience in the world but I was impressed with how Disney staff looked after me!

Anyway, I will see Jo on Sunday at 5pm! x

Janice
 
wow, that does sound scary!!!!!!!!!!!

maybe they should put there prices up so people eat less ...lol

Mike, did you order your diet coke with that?
 
LOOK AWAY!!

[SIZE=-1]A churro is a fried-dough pastry-based snack [/SIZE] usually covered in Cinnamon. They are DIVINE!!!! and am sure hugely calorific :)
 
I went to Perkins for breakfast and ordered a jalapeno omellete (sp!) as I love them and it arrived, it is made with 8 eggs (yes 8!) and with a plate of hash browns on the site and free of charge (ready for this!!) you get 3 buttermilk pancakes (hand sized) and a mammoth muffin (huge thing!). And it was only 5 dollars (about £2.50)

My little one had a city slicker which was designed for kids, it had 2 fried eggs, three sausages, 3 bits of bacon and a load of hash browns, after he had finished they gave him a 6 inch cookie in a bag to eat in the car, the cost !! some 2 english pounds.

Jes .......that alone could have fed a family ....lol. That is madness, why would anyone want to eat that much.....can they not see what they are doing to the people over there.
 
:eek::eek: Hubby is in the NY office this week. Am waiting for him to e-mail as me. As so far i have got a basic e-mail saying that they have set up the phone tranfer system (i don't think so as i tried ringing him before i saw the e-mail but it was after he sent it).

He's on cambridge and has taken a load of stuff with him. Just hope customs allowed him to keep it.

The poor guy as he's the senior of the 3 that have gone across, he's the one with the company credit card. So he has got to attend all the meals if they eat outside of the hotel.

Planning to go to the states on holiday in December so have got my work cut out for me.
 
Hi Mike, did you stay in the waterside vacation villa again?? Ive just had an email saying theyve added a games room!!! Cant wait for us to get out there now, and looking forward to seeing the villa as you recommended it last year to us!! Sarahxx.
 
Some US portions are larger, but the choice will always be yours if you eat it all or not. Eating establishments won't be offended if you leave some behind or ask for a container to take the remainder with you to have at a later time.

As for portion size being the reason why so many Americans are obese I would have to disagree with that. Some UK portions can be just as massive. I will never forget the first time I ordered fish and chips while here on a holiday and just staring in amazement as the chippy lady just kept shovelling on the chips:eek:. Even the superest (I know that's not a word) of super size fries from McDonalds or Burger King won't come close to normal chippy portion chips.

And I am not just attacking chips. Exactly how many calories and grams of fat are in those deep fried sausages and meat pies and puddings?. Lets see, meat and gravy in a suet pastry crust....hmmm. We don't know because unlike corporate McDs and others, Chippys (and Curry houses and Pubs, and Kebab takeaways) aren't harassed into divulging the nutritional content (or lack thereof) of their menu.

Should we start on the quintessential Full English breakfast?,...thought not.

I guess what I am trying to say is while I am not expert on English cuisine, I have yet to come across any typical dish served here that can be lauded as heart healthy or low fat or in any way inherently better for you than typical American cuisine.

As for gaining massive amounts of weight after moving to America, sure that is very possible, but know that I reached my heaviest ever weight after leaving America and moving here.

Maybe I should blame the food/portions served here and not myself for indulging in it....but I don't. I know I could have gotten just as fat if I had moved to Japan or some Mediterranean country that is purported to have "healthy" eating regimes.:eek:
 
" I went to Perkins for breakfast and ordered a jalapeno omellete (sp!) as I love them and it arrived, it is made with 8 eggs"

Which Perkins was this?. Never known them, or Dennys or Ihop or Waffle house to make omelettes with more than 3 eggs.

This was copied from the menu on the Perkins website.
Omelettes

Prepared with three Grade AA large eggs, served with hash browns or breakfast potatoes and choice of: • three buttermilk pancakes • fresh-baked Mammoth Muffin® • white, rye or whole wheat toast

As they are franchised restaurants I would be surprised that there are some of them that stray from the corporate menus.
 
It was on the 27 on the way down to Disney, when the omelette arrived it was huge and I joked with the server about how big it was, he said it was made with 8 portions of eggbeater which is the equivalent of 8 eggs.

Hiya Sarah, yeah we stayed in Waterside, it was lovely and the games room is excellent!! The pool table was brand new and the air hockey table was great as well!

M.
 
Ahhh ok, that info came from the server who wasn't the one who actually made it. When you consider that egg beaters cost quite a bit more than eggs I can't see the manager letting the cooks get away with doubling up on the quantities used.

Hey at least you got the option of lower cholesterol Egg Beaters, just try ordering them instead of fried eggs from your local cafe.:D
 
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