You probably saw the media coverage earlier this week about the study that has determined that super-sizing may have been going on a lot longer than we thought. 

For a millennium to be exact. 

Drs. Brian and Craig Wansink (they are brothers) studied over 50 paintings of the Last Supper that were painted between the years of 1000-2000 AD¹.  They picked the Last Supper because they said, “it is the most famously depicted dinner of all time.”  Using the size of Jesus Christ’s and the Apostles’ heads a size reference, the researchers used computer aided design  software to measure the sizes of the plates and food represented in the paintings.  They found that the plates and food sizes increased by over 65% over time.  While this finding doesn’t pardon us the excessive portions we eat today it does generate awareness about our distorted portions.  For more information on the study, click here.

In our earlier blog, “Picking the Right Dinner Plate,” we remarked about how plate sizes have expanded in modern times from 8 to 9 inches in the 50’s and 60’s to 12-inches or more in the last few decades.   So what?  Dr. Brian Wansink’s  research demonstrated that people are likely to eat more food (and therefore more calories) when they eat off arger sized plates.  Likewise, smaller plates means fewer calories.

I had a personal experience with this last week when I was visiting my brother.  In his cupboard are several sets of antique china.  All the plates ran 9 to 10 inches in diameter.   I found that indeed, I and the others around the table tended to choose less food because there was less surface area on the plate.  

I thought about turning my small plate dining experience into a book but Alex Bugosky beat me to it.  Drats!! His 9-inch Diet book describes how he happened upon the “small plate” idea and ways to incorporate portion management into daily living. 

At the heart of most weight management  programs is the premise that we are simply eating too much food.  So what is the right size?  WebMD has a great portion size tool that will help you learn how what a serving looks like for many different foods. 

Nobody knows what was the exact size of the plates used at the actual Last Supper.  The Wansinks believe the size of the plates depicted in the all the various Last Supper paintings is representative of the dinnerware used at the time of each respective painting.  If so, our modern portion distortion problems might be a just the latest phase in a growing trend. 

¹ Wansink B and Wansink CS. The largest last supper: Depictions of portion size and plate size increased over the millennium,” The International Journal of Obesity.   2010; March 23, e-published ahead of print.