{"id":1277,"date":"2012-02-13T19:05:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T00:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/?p=1277"},"modified":"2012-02-13T19:05:35","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T00:05:35","slug":"the-down-sizing-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html","title":{"rendered":"The Down-Sizing Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWould you like to downsize those fries?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2012\/02\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1279\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/261\/2012\/02\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n4-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>\u00a0It\u2019s not too likely that we will be hearing that from fast food places anytime soon. However, a recent study by scientists at Duke University explored what would happen if a smaller portion of food with lower calories was offered at a Chinese fast food restaurant. \u00a0 Less than 1% chose the smaller portion when it was just on the menu. When the servers asked, \u201cWould you like the smaller serving of rice for 200 fewer calories?\u201d the statistics changed.\u00a0 About a third of the customers opted for the smaller portion.*<\/p>\n<p>My husband Paul and I are currently in Thailand on a mission trip.\u00a0 That\u2019s one definite difference we have seen in the culture here.\u00a0 The portion sizes are smaller.\u00a0 At the nearby Dairy Queen, for instance, the small sizes are tiny &#8212; too small to do a lot of caloric damage, but enough to satisfy when you eat it slowly. \u00a0 The large size is about the same as our small at home. (I haven\u2019t gotten the nerve to try the green tea and red bean Blizzard, yet, but I may.)<\/p>\n<p>Restaurant portions are small to moderate, but are adequate.\u00a0 The exceptions are the foods prepared for foreign tourists.\u00a0 In fact, the tourist foods have caught on in the bigger cities, such as Chiang Mai, where we are staying. The large Central Mall has numerous doughnut places and pastry shops.\u00a0 That may be the reason that you don\u2019t see overweight Thai people in the remoter areas, but you do see them in the cities and tourist areas.\u00a0 When they eat like westerners, they soon start having our weight issues!<\/p>\n<p>By the way, I love pastries, and they tend to be my downfall.\u00a0 I have been able to escape temptation, though, because they do not cover or wrap their pastries here. They are out on the table, ready to collect any stray germs from inquisitive toddlers or careless sneezers.\u00a0 Not interested.<\/p>\n<p>While we can\u2019t force restaurants to give smaller portions, there are always options for avoiding food that you don\u2019t need or really want.\u00a0 You can share an entree, or ask for a senior or child\u2019s plate.\u00a0 Many restaurants will let you order from the menus that give smaller portions at a cheaper price, even if your age doesn\u2019t qualify you.<\/p>\n<p>If all else fails, ask for a to-go box to come when your meal arrives.\u00a0 Keep only what you need and want on your plate and pack up the rest for dinner tomorrow.\u00a0 If you do this before the meal, it is much more likely that the other half will go home in the box, not in your stomach.<\/p>\n<p>Forget about super-sizing and focus on down-sizing your portions. You will be surprised to find that you can be satisfied with less.\u00a0 You will also find your clothing will soon need to be down-sized, too!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2012\/02\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n3.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a>Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/p>\n<p>Susan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n<p>* The study was published in the February issue of <em>Health Affairs<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWould you like to downsize those fries?\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s not too likely that we will be hearing that from fast food places anytime soon. However, a recent study by scientists at Duke University explored what would happen if a smaller portion of food with lower calories was offered at a Chinese fast food restaurant. \u00a0 Less&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[366,367,15],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eating-plan","tag-down-sizing","tag-portions","tag-weight-loss"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Down-Sizing Secret - Beyond Gorgeous<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Down-Sizing Secret - Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cWould you like to downsize those fries?\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s not too likely that we will be hearing that from fast food places anytime soon. However, a recent study by scientists at Duke University explored what would happen if a smaller portion of food with lower calories was offered at a Chinese fast food restaurant. \u00a0 Less&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-14T00:05:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2012\/02\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n4-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sbrown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Down-Sizing Secret - Beyond Gorgeous","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Down-Sizing Secret - Beyond Gorgeous","og_description":"\u201cWould you like to downsize those fries?\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s not too likely that we will be hearing that from fast food places anytime soon. However, a recent study by scientists at Duke University explored what would happen if a smaller portion of food with lower calories was offered at a Chinese fast food restaurant. \u00a0 Less&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Gorgeous","article_published_time":"2012-02-14T00:05:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2012\/02\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n4-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"sbrown","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html","name":"The Down-Sizing Secret - Beyond Gorgeous","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2012\/02\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n4-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2012-02-14T00:05:35+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-14T00:05:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#\/schema\/person\/710ec516b61bcd3c78925c0c31c5afe6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2012\/02\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n4-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2012\/02\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n4-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/02\/the-down-sizing-secret.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Down-Sizing Secret"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/","name":"Beyond Gorgeous","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Susan Jordan Brown","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#\/schema\/person\/710ec516b61bcd3c78925c0c31c5afe6","name":"sbrown","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/author\/sbrown"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1281,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions\/1281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}