The Platter Problem

Photo courtesy of Naomi

Friday night we headed to town determining it was time for more dog food, dog bones and dog medication. Seventy four dollars later we left the store.

We also went out for a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, the wait time was a little longer than usual due to the promotion they were running but it was worth the wait. Being that I've been counting calories pretty regular over the past few months I decided to order something different than what I usually get.

I ordered the almond crusted tilapia with asparagus and berries (strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries). It was yummy delicious and of course I
couldn't possibly eat it all. I did eat all of the asparagus and berries but only 3/4 of one piece of the fish. It came with two huge pieces served on a platter.

Really, a platter? And we wonder why so many people in America or obese. I wish I had taken a photo of my meal to better demonstrate my point, but I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. I mean think about it, a whole turkey is served on a platter and could feed 10 people or many more depending on the size of the turkey. So why do I need one dinner served on a platter? I could have fed a third world country with that meal (well not really, but you get the point).

Normally when we decide to go to a restaurant and eat I've been looking up my calories so I know what to get, but recently I've fallen behind a little on my diligence. After we returned home I decided I would look up the tilapia meal and see how many calories it had. Can't be to many right, it's fish after all. If I had eaten the entire meal it would have been 1,236 calories almost as much as my allowable intake for the day. Boy am I glad, I didn't have the second piece of fish on my plate.

I honestly don't understand why the restaurants can't serve smaller portions, especially for the dinner meal. They make it the biggest portion they serve, when most of us who've read any dietary information know that your dinner meal should be your smallest not your largest. Do they think we will complain feeling that we got short changed for the amount of money we paid?

I don't know about you, but me personally I would rather see smaller portions served. If not we are either going to end up taking half of it home, or its going to get thrown away benefiting no one, or we are going to stuff ourselves into a food coma and be part of the very real problem in this country.