People that are offered large meals will eat them over and over again, day after day, according to a new study released on Wednesday at a conference of North American obesity researchers in Vancouver.
Currently, over 64% of Americans are classified as overweight or obese, prompting a national concern on the nation's health status.
"I think it's quite obvious we need innovative strategies to limit the impact of portion size on intake," according to Barbara Rolls of Penn State University, who spearheaded the study.
A team of researchers tracked the eating habits and energy intake of nearly two dozen men and women over 11 days. People would consistently eat more when offered large meals, except in the case of vegetables, the study shows.
The United States is currently under attack by Health experts for its commercialized promotions of super-sized meal proportions in restaurants.
"As someone who had been pushing fruits and vegetables for weight reduction I find this quite discouraging," Rolls says.
According to these experts, it will be increasingly difficult to lure Americans away from eating large portions of food and limit how much they eat because of the convenience of large portions at fast-food outlets and the financial attraction of buying low-priced food in bigger quantities in stores.
