Note: This is blog is part of our new series called "From the Pantry" which will take a historical look at the food we eat and the culture around food.

By: Liz Williams, Southern Food and Beverage Museum   Date: 10/3/11

Sometimes knowing something intellectually, even being convinced of it intellectually, isn’t enough.  The only way to change your behavior and to realize that there is a disconnect between what your brain knows and your actions is experience.  I set out to experience smaller portions.  

 My experiment began with a sugar pamphlet from the 1950s that promised recipes to lose weight. I was intrigued by the idea that someone could lose weight on a diet that included sugar.  The vintage was correct for determining portion size.  So I set out to have the portion control experience.

The recipes in the pamphlet, which were supposed to feed four, did feed four when I used regular plates from the 1950s.  These are the size of what we currently might call a luncheon plate.  When I filled the plate with the food that I created, I had about half to two-thirds of a regular modern dinner. I made a muffin recipe from the pamphlet.  But in order to make the number of muffins that the recipe promised, I had to use a 1950s era muffin tin.  Not quite mini-muffins, but not what passes for a muffin today.  I also noted that in the recipe, the ratio of sugar to flour was much lower than modern muffin recipes.  So between a smaller muffin and less sugar, each muffin contained fewer calories.

Not everyone has 1950s cookware and dinnerware at their disposal.  But this experiment convinced me – really demonstrated to me – what I already know.  Our portions are too big for our health.  If you want to change your behavior, you have to believe it beyond the intellectual understanding. 

This final exercise brought it home for me.   I juiced one orange.  The juice fit into a four ounce glass without filling it.  That is why those tiny glasses are called juice glasses.  That is a portion.