Research Article Summary Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Article Summary - Research Paper Example Methods: information about current food portion was obtained by sampling foods sold meant for immediate consumption from fast-food outlets, take-out joints and family-type restaurants (Young & Nestle, 246). Some of the foods sampled include alcoholic beverages, cakes and steak. This information was obtained directly from the manufacturers or from the package labels. If the information was unavailable, two samples of each food were weighed using Sysco Digital Portion Scale (Young & Nestle, 246). Results: Most of the portions weighed were above the standard portion set by USDA and FDA. The only exception was the sliced white bread. The cookie category posted the largest excess over the set USDA standards by 700%. The other categories exceeded the USDA standards by the following percentages: cooked pasta (480%), muffins (333%), steaks (224%) and bagels (195%). however, other foods such as beer, chocolate, French fires and hamburgers did not exceed the set limits (Young & Nestle, 246). the research also revealed that food companies use larger food sizes compared to what was used two decades ago. the trend towards increasing portion sizes started in the 1970s. increasing sharply in the 1980s to present (Young & Nestle, 246). Discussion and conclusion: the researchers observe that the food portions in the marketplace have increased steadily since the 1970s, and this can be attributed to the fact that the food service industry in the United States has been on a steady growth. This has led to a larger number of new food products being introduced. Competition has also made manufacturers increase portions in order to attract customers. As a result of the increased sizes, the number of claries consumed has increased. Furthermore, there has been a ‘supersizing’ of menu items, making them larger than they were a couple of decades before. The authors conclude that there is need to focus on portion size as one of the strategies of managing weight and