Featured, Nutrition

The Dine Out and Binge Trend. . .

Tell me this doesn’t sound familiar: You go out to eat with family and friends, but when your dinner arrives the portion of food is immense. Perhaps even twice as immense as a meal you’d prepare for yourself at home. And depending on your cooking habits, and the restaurant or diner, chances are a lot less nutritious-potentially tripling your normal calorie intake, if not more! … But you’d hate to waste any food, and you know you probably won’t heat it up later. … Or perhaps, staring down at the plate of pasta or burger or greasy “single-serving” pizza, you form a plan in your mind to save half of the dish for later. … But after a little while, comfortable in your booth, enjoying family and friends, soon that half-dish becomes a third. A third becomes a quarter. … And before you know, that double portion of food as vanished from the plate!

Now consider this: Your stomach is roughly the size of your fist. Even though it’s a muscle and can expand, you shouldn’t need more food than about the size of your fist in order to feel satisfied. The problem when dining out is that people tend to find themselves:

Ordering too much food

Eating too quickly (keep your eyes peeled in future articles for more on the dangers of eating too quickly…)

Drinking alcohol

Alcohol not only tacks on more calories to an already double portion dine out binge, but it manages to actually increase one’s appetite. And because the liver has to work harder to process the booze, the body has a much harder time metabolizing fat, let a lone a more-than-usual portion!