Over Indulgence-Trend or Way of Life?

Over the last decade we have witnessed portions of food growing increasingly larger in their placement on menus and in advertising. Cheese-stuffed pizza crust, bigger burgers, more toppings, deals involving more for less, burritos as big as your head, and huge appetizers served before the salad , soup, entrée and dessert. And currently there are ubiquitous eating competitions and a show on television that shows an idiot trying to eat enough food to feed a small community.
This is disturbing on many levels.
One, there are too many families that are going hungry, and we are feeding our faces more in one meal than some people see on their plates in a week.
Secondly, we have a severe obesity problem in this country that needs to be addressed immediately, a subject that was never discussed in all the gibbering and raving in the debate about health care reform. With heart disease, cancer and diabetes on the rise in children and young adults, it astonishes me that no one brought up the gluttony and lack of exercise that has become pandemic in our society, that Lipitor is being prescribed to 5th graders and teen agers are getting lap band surgery to control their weight. Health insurance coverage cost less if you are in good shape and you may stay out of the hospital and avoid all the diseases if you are healthy. You cannot do this by eating a truck load of food at every meal.
Lastly, I am in the food service industry and wish the propaganda of gluttony would stop. Food was meant to be enjoyed. Other cultures have the “little dishes”-the Maghreb from North Africa, Tapas from Spain, Antojitos from South America, dim sum from China, the amuse-bouches of France, Meze from the Middle East, Zakuski from Russia, and the Smorgasbord from Scandinavia. Unlike hors d’oeuvres’, which means “outside the meal” as an appetizer; the little dishes are the main serving of food but served as smaller portions and enjoyed casually and with rich tradition. In the America we are slowly arriving at this idea with tasting menus and fusion foods that combine different cultures and their customs of eating.
Excessive eating may be a trend we are going through, but I can’t remember the last time I was asked if I wanted my fruit cup super-sized.