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Portion distortion

How the food industry convinced us to upsize, and why shrinking portions is so hard.

Serving sizes have increased dramatically in recent decades. It鈥檚 happened so subtly that many of us simply don't realise, but it鈥檚 having a serious impact on our health and our planet. So, how can we reverse it?

Emily Thomas learns how food manufacturers and clever marketers have nudged us into buying ever larger portions, leveraging ultra cheap ingredients and our own psychology. We hear that the phenomenon is so pervasive it鈥檚 also crept into the home, where many of us have lost any concept of what an appropriate portion is.

Given the increasing awareness of the poor health and environmental outcomes linked to overconsumption, we find out what regulators and companies are doing to shrink portions back to a more sustainable size, and ask whether the real answer might lie in a fundamental shift in the way we all value food.

Producer: Simon Tulett

If you would like to get in touch with the show please email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: A woman drinking from a giant coffee cup. Credit: Getty/大象传媒)

Contributors:

Pierre Chandon, professor of marketing and director of the INSEAD Sorbonne University Behavioural Lab, Paris;
Theresa Marteau, director of the behaviour and health research unit at Cambridge University;
Denise Chen, chief sustainability officer at Melco Resorts & Entertainment, Hong Kong.

Available now

32 minutes

Last on

Sun 11 Apr 2021 07:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 8 Apr 2021 03:32GMT
  • Thu 8 Apr 2021 10:32GMT
  • Thu 8 Apr 2021 21:32GMT
  • Thu 8 Apr 2021 22:32GMT
  • Sun 11 Apr 2021 07:32GMT

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