State launches campaign to get Mainers to eat less.
AUGUSTA – Don’t fill up your dinner plate; you’ll be less likely to overeat.
Leave the serving dishes on the counter and don’t bring extra food to the table; you’ll be less likely to have seconds.
Don’t eat that whole bagel; it represents four servings of bread, not one.
Downsize that chicken or steak serving; it should only be the size of a deck of cards (about three ounces).
Those are some tips from a new campaign kicked off Thursday by Maine’s first lady and the state’s top health official to encourage Mainers to eat less. The goal: reduce obesity, which has become a health epidemic.
Advertisements declaring “Get Your Portions in Proportion” and “A Little Less is Plenty” began running statewide Thursday.
The restaurant and food industries have long served meals with too much food, and that super-sized mentality has carried over to our homes, said first lady Karen Baldacci, a dietitian, and Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Bureau of Health.
“The more food on our plates, the more we eat. And over the past 15 years the portion sizes we’ve been serving our families have expanded dramatically,” Baldacci said.
Consumers who are now used to drinking 20 ounces of soda instead of eight and eating an eight-ounce burger instead of a three-ounce one have forgotten what a healthy portion is, Mills said.
Trying to lose weight and maintain a healthy size in American society has grown difficult, the women said. “It’s just like those salmon trying to swim upstream; the cards are stacked against us,” Mills said.
Mills said she struggles like many people do with the opportunity to eat too much. “When I say, ‘I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,’ the horses get nervous,” she joked.
“Trying to get to a healthy weight, the portion size is the biggest challenge I face. … I’ll eat lean chicken, but I easily eat more than the serving size. I’ve gotten used to bigger portions. Judging by the statistics, I’m not alone.”
It’s the role of government to provide models, Baldacci said.
Pointing to a nearby table holding food, Mills said people don’t realize that an 8- or 12-ounce steak “is three times the amount of meat” they should be eating.
People don’t understand that when they eat a large bagel they’re eating four servings of bread, “three-fourths of the daily requirement right there!” Mills said. On the table was a single-serving bagel. It looked freakishly tiny.
It’s OK to eat the big bagel, Mills said, but bread consumption the rest of the day should be cut. If you’re still hungry after eating two servings of bread at a meal, eat fruits and vegetables.
Eating less isn’t easy because “our appetite doesn’t decrease over time,” Baldacci said. “But we can’t eat at 45 like we did at 25.”
In Maine 60 percent of adults are overweight or obese, and one in three children are overweight.
The good news is that the trend can be turned around, Mills said, which is where the health reminders come in.
This latest campaign follows others that encouraged exercise, less time watching television and being on the computer, and less soda consumption.
The six-week campaign will cost $200,000 and is paid by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mills said.
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