More beans, por favor
Among the many “I coulda told you that” recommendations in the government’s apparently groundbreaking report on dietary guidelines was, essentially, “Eat less.” You really want to lose weight or prevent obesity? Move more, practice fork-downs and table-pushaways. (And go vegan.)
I know Americans as a group are a bunch of fatasses. I grew up in the Midwest, in one of the fattest states, actually. However, no one in my family (excluding a few in-laws here) could be considered obese, despite the fact that they all like to eat. A lot. Myself included. My friends are svelte and active, and the majority of the people closest to me are vegetarians. So, even though it’s self-righteous of me, I never considered myself truly part of the U.S.’s, ah, huge problem with obesity–and to a lesser extent, all the larger psychic sins which are implied in any discussion about obesity, like over-consumption and greed.
Then, I left the country and saw how other people eat. Now, Latin Americans in general are not known for their shyness at a table. They eat, they socialize, they eat some more. Despite my North American-ness, I was on the thinner side of a typical Guatemalan woman. Guatemalan cuisine is, unfortunately, not exactly one of the shining examples of the Latin world, but at its core it is fairly nutricious–beans, squash, rice, eggs, corn. They also tend to eat in ways that make more sense biologically: protein- and fiber-rich breakfasts, large late lunches, and light dinners. There’s also the fact that people have to move a lot more by necessity, walking and carrying things everywhere they go, and of course, always being ready to run from packs of dogs.
I felt like a fatass in Guatemala and it was due to the portion sizes. My North American brain wanted to see plates loaded with food when they were served to me in hostels or at peoples’ homes, and instead what I would often get was a spoonful of rice, a spoonful of bean paste, and a hot stack of tortillas to share with everyone else. Even nicer restaurants or cafes in more touristy places such as Antigua were, to my way of thinking, skimpy with their offerings. No refills on coffee or tea, no free glass of water with your meal, no frills. Undoubtedly much of this is due to travel in a developing country unused to accommodating foreign palates and vegetarians. But perhaps it’s not such a bad thing. After all, it was my warped sense of how much I needed to eat that was contributing to my dissatisfaction with meals. And it is a warped sense: when I go to restaurants here, I often do not finish my food because there is too much of it. Do I just want the security of a slop-laden plate, heavy with food I can’t possibly consume all at one time, plonked down in front of me?
The answer is yes to some degree. In New York, restaurants are constantly coming under fire from the Bloomberg administration for all manner of evils: trans fats, deep fried foods, and of course, portion sizes. If people were actually served the amount of food they needed to consume, they would likely see a half-empty plate which is mostly vegetables. And when you are paying a lot of money for a meal out, you expect results; that is, you expect the free refills, the chips and salsa, the plate that the server has to use two hands to set in front of you. No wonder that New Yorkers balk at the mayor’s heavy-handedness with the restaurant industry.
I can’t decide whether telling people to eat less is really the best strategy for preventing obesity. Coupled with the “eat less” dictum is usually “move more”–and when people move more, they become hungrier. That’s a good thing. Nuance is famously lost in our media, but any serious dietary recommendation from the Surgeon General should have an if-then clause. IF you are exercising (and I am not talking about a fucking yoga class twice a week), THEN you get to eat more. Or, IF you are eating only vegetables, grains and legumes, THEN your portion sizes should probably be bigger.
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