Courting Obesity at the Movies
By Robert Latkany, MDNovember 18, 2009
Whomever is in charge of the anti-obesity push in this country obviously has not been to movies lately. Maybe it's because I hardly ever go to the movies, or maybe it's because I never purchase snacks at the movies, but I was totally blown away by the portions of candy and popcorn now available at the movie theatre. My six year-old daughter and her friend were kind enough to guide me through the process of movie-snack-selection this weekend. We had had the option of choosing a veritable crate of candy or a barrel of salty popcorn with fake butter. After having to endure some very big eyes from the girls, I caved in and bought a $7 small size serving of popcorn, which looked like the jumbo they used to serve in the olden days at the 99-cent theater.
Much to the girls' dismay, I wouldn't buy the gallon of soda and the family-sized serving of gummy bears.
Where did this idea that serving sizes ought to accomodate the appetites of teenage football players ever come from? It stands to reason that if someone is provided with larger servings, they will eat more. This phenomenon has actually been studied in moviegoers: Wansink and colleague determined that moviegoers ate 45.3% more when they were given a large container of popcorn compared to a medium container. Even more interesting, moviegoers ate 33.6% more if given a larger container even though the popcorn was stale. Colapinto et al found that children who usually eat while watching television or frequently go to fast-food restaurants preferred larger portions of french fries and potato chips. Doubling the portion of meals for children resulted in a 25% increase in meal intake which according to Orlet Fisher et al was attributed to an increase in bite size and oddly the children were unaware of the increase in this portion size.
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