Nutrition and portion sizes: art imitating life

In working toward healthy communities, we all know that nutrition plays an important role.  There’s plenty of evidence that Americans generally aren’t eating well, and are also eating way too much.  Obesity rates, driven by many factors, are rising at an alarming pace.  Those are all facts.  But if you’ve ever wondered if there’s any proof to the often-surmised theory that portion sizes at meals are increasing, a newly published study provides compelling evidence, and from an unlikely source — the world of art. 

As reported by Reuters, a pair of U.S. professors studied 52 paintings depicting the biblical Last Supper.  It turns out that the well-known scene has changed dramatically over the centuries in one jarring way: “The study found that, over the past 1,000 years, the size of the main meal has progressively grown 69 percent; plate size has increased 66 percent and bread size by about 23 percent.” 

It stands to reason that life is not imitating art, but that art is reflecting the times that the artists lived in.  While this study might not have profound consequences, it is particularly timely with health care on everyone’s mind.  When it comes to portion size, the role of government is of course limited.  But giving the public the best information to make decisions would seem to be a useful step, and the federal government is looking to replicate a widely supported idea already being implemented at the local level in New York City.  Among the lesser-talked-about clauses in the just-signed federal health care legislation is section 4205 — chain and fast-food restaurants will be required to post calorie counts on menus.

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