Super-sized portions

Portion sizes in the U.S. are growing along with Americans’ waistlines.

A trip to any nearby fast-food restaurant provides plenty of evidence.

In the 1950s, a burger and fries meal included 2.4 ounces of fries, 3.9 ounces of burger and fixin’s and a 7-ounce soda pop.

Today, the same meal includes 6.7 ounces of fries, 12 ounces of hamburger and a whopping 42-ounce soda.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently produced this infographic to show the dramatic increase:

The CDC’s new campaign, Making Health Easier, looks at the new (ab)normal and includes resources for combating large portion sizes.

The website also includes a quiz so you can test your knowledge on portion sizes.

(I did horribly. I only answered two of the five questions correctly.)

The Huffington Post recently took a look at portion sizes as well.

According to the article (quoting a study in the journal Public Health Nutrition), 96 percent of America’s chain restaurant entrees fell outside the range of the USDA’s recommendations for fat, saturated fat and sodium per meal.

According to the report, the average dinner entrée has 1,512 mg of sodium – that’s more than the CDC’s recommendation for an entire day. The average meal includes 674 calories, 32g of fat and 12g of saturated fat.

Check out the Huffington Post story to see some of the worst offenders when it comes to calorie- and sodium-loaded meals.

What do you think? Were you aware how much portion sizes have grown over the years?