How much surface area?

About two years ago, I bought new plates. Which was one of the best things I ever did. I did it because I looked at two pieces of ceramic and was scared at what I saw. I was getting a holiday meal together and dug out some of the nicer pieces of china that I don't use regularly. As I set the table something became clear.

The dishes I had bought at a local department store were the same size as an antique serving platter.

Read that sentence again, it should scare you.

A few weeks later I went to a restaurant supply store and bought some salad plates. Those have been my dinner plates ever since. Why did I have to do that? Because it is now the norm in America to eat on plates that are more than a foot across.

The giant plates I had, measured in at 14 inches across. And I remembered when I bought them, they were not the largest ones on display, they were the average. So at one time, a 14 in plate was used for serving the roast for the entire family. Now, it is used to hold one person's meal. That should make you shake your head at the very least.

In my life time, we have gone from average dinner plate size of 8 in. to an average of 12 ins. Four more inches in diameter, more surface area to fill with food. And because we were told not to waste our food. We eat it all.

Look at this diagram below:

http://www.houseplanshelper.com/dining-table-size.html

This is the minimum place setting for serving people in a restaurant or banquet. Those average plates I had bought, would have taken up almost all of the serving area.

As for the salad plates, those work out great. They are 8 in across and I have never had a problem with food spillage.

I didn't see a dramatic weight lost from just switching my plates. But I did notice less food being wasted.

Other people have noticed as well. This paper gives a nice overview on why it's a problem. Cornell has researched it.  If you are having a hard time visualizing it, the picture below is one of the best ones I found to represent the problem.

Source: Multiple places on the net.

Do I recommend switching plate sizes? Yes. Will they help you loose weight? Maybe. But at least you are taking out one thing that will trick you into eating too much.