Serving Portion Size Influences 5-Year-Old but Not 3-Year-Old Children's Food Intakes

Abstract

Americans have come to expect large portion sizes. This is evident from the number of “super-sized” and “value-sized” food items available in grocery stores and restaurants. Larger portion sizes could be contributing to the increasing prevalence of overweight among adults and children ( (1) Hill J.O. Peters J.C. Environmental contributions to the obesity epidemic. Science. 1998; 280: 1371-1374 Google Scholar ). An initial step in linking larger portion sizes to increased overweight would be to establish a relationship between portion size and food intake. To date, however, only a few empirical studies have systematically examined the influence of portion size on intake in adults ( (2) Edelman B. Engell D. Bronstein P. Hirsch E. Environmental effects on the intake of overweight and normal-weight men. Appetite. 1986; 7: 71-83 Google Scholar , (3) Booth D.A. Fuller J. Lewis V. Human control of body weight cognitive or physiological? Some energy-related perceptions and misperceptions. in: Cioffi L.A. James W.P.T. Van Itallie T.B. The Body Weight Regulatory System Normal and Disturbed Mechanisms. Raven Press, New York, NY1981: 305-314 Google Scholar , (4) Rolls B.J. Effects of food quality, quantity, and variety on intake. in: Marriott B.M. Not Eating Enough. National Academy Press, Washington, DC1995: 203-215 Google Scholar , (5) Engell D. Kramer M. Zaring D. Birch L.L. Rolls B. Effects of serving size on food intake in children and adults. Obes Res. 1995; 3: 381S Google Scholar ) and to our knowledge there have been no studies in children. Supported by National Institutes of Health grants DK-39177 to B. J. R. and ED-32973 to L L. B. The Nestle R&D Center in Connecticut provided the macaroni and cheese.