A new study traces the cause of the U.S. obesity epidemic to Americans eating larger portions and doing so more often in the past 30 years, according to a news release by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The study, appearing in the journal PLoS Medicine, is thought to be the first to assess the influence of portion sizes, food energy density and eating frequency on total calorie consumption. Researchers reviewed surveys of U.S. adults taken in 1977-1978, 1989-1991, 1994-1998 and 2003-2006.
Average daily calorie intake rose from about 1,803 kcal in 1977-78 to 2,374 kcal in 2003-2006. Portion size accounted for an annual increase of nearly 15 kcal and changes in the number of eating occasions accounted for a 4 kcal increase from 1977 to 1991. Then, from 1994 to 2006, changes in the number of eating occasions accounted for an annual increase of 39 kcal and changes in portion size accounted for an annual decrease of 1 kcal.
Read the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill release on obesity.
Read the full study in PLoS Medicine.
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