Size matters

I've heard that one of the things that has contributed to our obesity problems is size.  Size of entrees.  Size of sodas-double gulp anyone?  Size of appetizers or desserts that are consumed by one but designed for sharing.  Size.  Even the size of our plates.  I had also heard that to lose weight try eating from a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.  A glance in my cupboard tells me just how much smaller my salad plates are than my dinner plates, and don't get me started on the bowls, they're enormous.  As I was putting dishes away Sunday morning I had a very vivid reminder of how our plates have increased in size right along our own societal increase in size:

The plate on the left is my salad plate.  It measures 9" across and has an eating surface of 5" across due to the decorative border-which let's face it can easily hold a nice piece of bread perched on it!

The plate on the right is a dinner plate made by the Crown Potteries Company that was in business from 1902-1962.  It is no less than 48 years old and easily much, much older.  It also measures 9" across but has a slightly larger eating surface of 6".  This plate was considered the standard size for a meal and can easily hold all the food that your body needs to consume in a single sitting-that's not to say that some wouldn't pile it high and come back for more, but having a smaller plate to fill might be a helpful visual cue for those that are trying to lose weight. 

If size does matter, and a smaller plate would be a good visual cue for you, perhaps a trip to your local secondhand store would be helpful.  I stocked up on mismatched dishes before hosting a dinner party last June, I no longer wanted to go the paper plate route, I wanted pretty dishes, I have three or four mismatched sets now, all varying degrees of antiques, all cute and all much, much smaller than the dinner plates that fill my cupboards.