Feb. 19th

In our quest to eat healthier and lose weight more of us are turning tocooking. But that special recipe can add on the pounds as well.It's called portion distortion and we've known restaurants do it, but nowit looks like cooking books have gotten in the act as well.Obesity continues to be a problem and plenty of blame has been placed onthe restaurant industry. That's mainly because portions when you go out toeat, both at restaurants and fast food establishment, have gotten biggerover the years. That adds to your daily calorie load and packs on the pounds. So to combat this and to save money, more people are preparing meals at home. And although that is a healthy way to go, you need to be a little carefulbecause recipes have also started to make portions a lot larger than you'dthink. As a matter of fact, the portion sizes on regular home recipes havegrown by around forty percent per serving in the last seventy years. Thatmeans around an extra eighty calories per serving which can add up over theyears to pack on the pounds. One example researchers give is the Joy of Cooking cookbook's brownierecipe. Today it uses the same ingredients it did back in the 60's but nowcalls for you to cut it into 15 brownies, back then it was thirty. Otherrecipes also now call for more calorie heavy meat, whereas, years ago theycalled for beans because meat cost too much.So what can you do? The simplest thing is just to realize this ishappening and control your own portions at home. One recommendation is tomake the full recipe, but then cut the entire finished product in half. Freeze half and serve the other half to you family.