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How Can Obesity or Overweight Be Caused by Recipes? When talking about obesity or overweight, the blame on fast food restaurants can hardly be ignored as the food offered in these restaurants have changed the way Americans eat. However, a new study has identified another culprit. According to the researchers from Cornell University, the so-called portion distortion, which is the trend of eating larger and larger servings, is caused by recipes even long before the fast food restaurants. The findings were published during February 2009 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. By looking at how classic recipes have changed during the past 70 years, the study found that there was a nearly 40 percent increase in calories (about an extra 77 calories) per serving for nearly every recipe reviewed. The trend in numerous cookbooks was identified but the focus was on American kitchen icon ‘Joy of Cooking’, which had its first publication during the 1930s and has been updated regularly with new editions since then until the most recently in 2006. It was noted in the study that the increases in overall calories per recipe have been gradual. However, portion sizes tended to jump, first during the 1940s’, again during the 1960s’, and with the largest jump in the 2006 edition.
Moreover, out of the 18 recipes found in all the 7 editions, 17 of which increased in calories per serving. This could be attributed to a jump in total calories per recipe (about 567 calories) as well as larger portion sizes. The reason behind the change could be owing to money. The relative household income now has made food to be much cheaper than during the 1930s. Therefore, the ingredients that are less expensive and of lower calorie such as beans are now been replaced by more meat. Nevertheless, the scope of the current study is limited as it measured the recipes only as written not as eaten. It is rather difficult to estimate the effect on a typical diet since people may eat more or less than the suggested serving. But, an increase of 40 percent in calories is certainly significant since a change of even 10 percent can greatly affect the weight, especially when high calorie foods were involved. In fact, there was a study done in 2002 that compared the same cookbook’s brownie recipe from the 1960s and 1970s editions to the recipe from the 1997 edition. With same recipe and same pan, the one in the 1960s and 1970s yielded 30 brownies while the one in the 1997s produced only 15. The study also traced other recipe sources, which had the similar trend. For example, a popular chocolate chip cookie recipe that used to produce 100 cookies decades before made only 60 during the 1980s with no change in ingredients. In other words, there has been an increase in size for food over the years. Many diseases are linked to overweight or obesity. For instance, an overweight person is more likely to get heart disease. He or she is also a possible candidate for diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and certain types of cancer. Thus, maintaining a healthy weight is paramount. To do this, perhaps, you should not let a full portion of food gets near your plate from now on.
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