In two words: Portion size.
Note especially the size of the average soda today compared to the 1950s. No wonder Americans are having trouble keeping off weight.
(H/t Gizmodo)
Related articles
- Size Of Fast Food Burgers Is Out Of Control…Just Like Our Waistlines (blisstree.com)
- Average Portion Sizes Today vs. in the 1950s (neatorama.com)
- Infographic: A Fast Food Burger Is 3 Times Larger Now Than in the 1950s (theatlantic.com)
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Somehow I doubt these are average values. A supersize drink at McDonald’s was 42 fluid ounces years ago, but McDonald’s doesn’t even carry supersize anymore. There are lots of places that sell 8-ounce drinks, so for the average to be 42, there’d have be a lot that also sell ~76-ounce drinks. Maybe I’m just out of touch with the fast-food eating populace, but I just don’t think these are averages. Unless they’re including two-liter bottles from grocery stores…
Also notice the quoted size difference is shown vertically, but that the area of the graphics are also scaled up to give the impression that the change has been far more than it actually has. Seven is 1/6th of 42, but the small cup isn’t close to 1/6th the area of the large cup.
Granted that portion sizes actually are larger now than they were decades ago, but graphics like this do more to muddle the issue than to inform anybody about actual data.
According to their corporate menus, the largest size drink at McD’s is 32 oz and at Burger King 40 oz. A Big Gulp at 7-11 is 52 oz, and a Double Big Gulp is 64 oz. Meanwhile the smallest drinks at McD’s are 12 oz and at Burger King 16 oz. When you consider that a can of soft drink is 12 oz, and that this used to be a normal medium-sized soft drink, then I’d say serving sizes have gone up dramatically and alarmingly. While I have seen 8 oz cans of Coke, I am unaware of any fast food outlets selling drinks that small.
Nothing is being muddled at all by this graph–people are drinking themselves to death with soda pop. This is what David Wilkerson used to call spoon suicide. Anything that will get people to realize that there is death in that 32-64 oz cup of soft drink, I am absolutely for.