Won't Miss #387 - whining about American portions

One of my students has a brother who lives in San Diego. He has gained 15 kg. (33 lbs.) in two years due to eating American-size meals. I suggested that he not eat everything he is served and prepare his own food more frequenlty, but she wasn't having any of that sort of crazy logic. No, it was the American food that was the problem, not his laziness about cooking or inability not to gobble down every morsel placed in front of him. I frequently hear students whine about how over-sized food servings are in restaurants in the U.S. No doubt, the portions are too big and this is linked to a cultural perception in the U.S. that value is linked to quantity. However, in my experience, they're too big in Japan as well at restaurants (at least in terms of carbs) and I manage this by simply not eating it all.

I won't miss hearing Japanese people complain that portions are too big in the U.S. when they eat it all up of their own volition (and they usually do, as if it were some challenge they had to meet). 

Will Miss #208 - healthy portion sizes

This picture is supposed to be ironic in light of the contents of this post. I thought I'd better make that clear for the humor-impaired.

When I say "healthy", I don't mean "big", but rather the right size for a person to consume and maintain a healthy body weight. Like many foreigners who first arrive in Japan, I thought that the portion sizes were puny for the cost and was critical of them because I felt they represented poor value. What I have discovered is that these sizes are actually much closer to what one should eat to stay at a healthy body weight. In the U.S., we used to have a restaurant culture which gave us large portions so we could take home leftovers and enjoy one more experience with the restaurant's food. Now, we just overfeed ourselves on huge portions and think this is normal. There has been a domino effect to this in that people scale everything up, including food prepared at home, in accord with the cultural norms in regards to portion sizes. Being in Japan has really helped me learn to eat less because the portion sizes here have acclimated me to a different serving size.

I'll miss getting closer to the "right" amount of food when eating out rather than being continuously overfed.