Free Republic

It's high time we addressed a growing concern in the restaurant industry: portion sizes and the rise of "Fat-flation." Somewhere along the line in American culinary history, the amount of food served in restaurants became a point of pride for many of us. We'd either polish off every last morsel on our plates, take home leftovers, or sadly, let them languish in the fridge for days before tossing them out. What a waste. After four decades of Americans packing on the pounds, and all the health issues that come with it, it's clear we need a change. Both restaurants and...

Detainees’ diets at Guantanamo Bay have been a controversial issue for some time and now the U.S. prison is said to be rationing ice cream. The frozen dessert is allegedly being tightly measured, with only one ice cream allowed for each of its 147 detainees. Journalist for The Miami Herald, Carol Rosenberg, photographed a refrigerator at Guantanamo, with two signs reading ‘DETAINEE FOOD ONLY’ and ‘Only 1 Ice Cream For each detainee!’

American portions reduce as food prices rise By Tom Leonard and Alex Spillius Last Updated: 1:57AM BST 30/04/2008 Faced with growing delivery costs driven by higher fuel prices, many US restaurants have done the previously unthinkable and introduced smaller food portions served on smaller plates. The increase in fuel prices was identified yesterday as the biggest issue affecting the lives of ordinary Americans. It surpassed even unemployment and home repossessions, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Until now, Americans have taken for granted the relative cheapness of petrol and food. Although $3·60 (£1·80) for a gallon of...

WASHINGTON - In the fight against obesity, restaurants should shrink portions, provide more nutritional information and bundle such calorie-laden food as burgers and pizza with healthier side dishes, according to a federally commissioned report to be made public Friday. The report, requested and funded by the Food and Drug Administration, lays out ways to help consumers manage their intake of calories from restaurants, cafeterias and ready-to-eat meals bought at grocery stores. It does not address school meals. "As of this decade, Americans are eating away-from-home foods more frequently and consuming more calories from away-from-home establishments than ever before," the report...

Israeli police today detained two of Madonna’s bodyguards after they assaulted photographers waiting for the star outside her Tel Aviv hotel. Two of the photographers and a policeman who tried to break up the brawl were wounded, said Tel Aviv police spokesperson Liat Pearl. “Two security guards were detained for questioning by the Tel Aviv police department,” said Pearl. The pop diva has been in Israel since Wednesday with 2,000 other students of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Madonna’s visit to the country has sparked a media frenzy with the local dailies devoting pages detailing her luxury hotel suite and even...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - With self-refilling bowls of soup and jumbo buckets of stale popcorn, professor Brian Wansink has identified one culprit for U.S. obesity: excessive food portions. The University of Illinois researcher has set up several food experiments that show the more people are given, the more they will eat — regardless of whether they are full or think the food tastes good. "In the obesity war, portion size is the first casualty," said Wansink, who founded the University of Illinois' Food & Brand Lab. "It's easy to point at, and we don't have to take responsibility because we can...