The average restaurant meal in the US is now four times larger than  it was in the 1950s. Treehugger describes one such meal at a Texas venue that  consists of a 72-ounce  steak, a shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, roll and butter: This  will provide you with 5,760 calories and 480 grams of fat, far more than an  adult needs in one day.

Over-sized portions are the norm at many eateries in the US:

A 64-oz “Double Big Gulp” soda puts 59 teaspoons of sugar and 800  calories into your system.

A Panera cinnamon roll contains 640 calories and a full Sierra  Turkey on Focaccia, 920 calories.

A number of popular entrees from Chinese restaurants contain about 1,000  calories each; plus, dishes like lemon chicken and sweet & sour pork are  also loaded with sodium.

No wonder the Centers  for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that over one-third of the US  adult population is obese and about 17 percent of children and adolescents are  overweight. A recent study predicts that nearly of US adults will be  overweight by 2030.

To alert us to how portion sizes in US restaurants have gotten larger, the  CDC has created this infographic which can also be seen at Making Health Easier:

As a result of the titanic meals now served in the US, adults in the US are  now 26 pounds heavier.

There are many factors that have contributed to this supersized state of  affairs. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni recently noted that, as  a result of the past century’s developments in agriculture (mass production of  corn, soybeans and wheat; feedlots teeming with livestock; factories making all  manner of processed foodstuffs), we are surrounded by an abundance of food which  we are eating just because it is there. A quote from Michael L. Power’s and Jay Schulkin’s The Evolution of  Obesity succinctly sums up the dilemma of abundance and obesity confronting  Americans:

“We evolved on the savannahs of Africa. We now  live in Candyland.”

All this is not exactly encouraging. The CDC has some suggestions about how we can fight the “new (ab)normal” of  mega-portions: splitting a too-large entrée with someone else; asking  for a “to go” box at the start and “wrap[ing] up half your meal as soon as it’s  brought to the table; being aware that you’re likely to keep reaching for one  more from a large bulk “econo” package.

We can’t go back to living on the savannahs. Can we school ourselves to see  the “new (ab)normal” — to realize how very much we’ve loaded onto our  plates?