According to an article from the Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, how much we eat has increased significantly over the last several years. For example:
- Twenty years ago a bagel was 3 inches wide. Now they are 6 inches and have gone from 140 calories to 350
- The average restaurant meal is four times larger than in the 1950s
- In the 1960s dinner plates were about 9 inches in diameter, today they are nearly twelve inches
As you may guess, obesity rates among Americans, including children, have also increased over the last 35 years.
It should come as no surprise that the United States is the most obese country in the world- except for some Pacific Islands and two Middle East countries. Keep that in mind when you think about health care costs and comparisons with other developed countries.
Weren’t Americans the inventors of “supersize?” Now we be it.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I’ve been eating bagels for a lot longer than 20 years. A bagel wasn’t 3″ 20 years ago here in NJ!
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Me too in NJ. 3” seems small, I’m sure they are bigger than they were though.
Dick
Richard D Quinn Blogging at Quinnscommentary.net and HumbleDollar.com @quinnscomments
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I suspect that sugar intake whether in processed foods or added at the table or by consuming sweets like colas, pastries, ice cream and more has a lot to do with it. Eating out is also a culprit. Restaurants use sauces and oils to make things taste good so you’ll come back more often. The calories add up.
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There is no doubt Americans are fat. The US military even considers it a national security issue but nobody is listening because the military is now trying to figure out what gender the soldiers are. We need to find a happy middle. Americans and some other developed countries on average are taller than some poor countries. According to an article I read, your genes and what you ate as a kid play big parts in how tall you grow. Demark has the tallest men at 5′ 11.5″, US stands at 5′ 9.5″, and the shortest in the list that I saw was Yemen at 5′ 3″. You are what you eat.
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