Bigger is not better
Food, Internet, Thoughts | March 26, 2010
I’ve recently been seeing this article posted on Facebook along with comments such as “I’m crying with joy” and “My life is now complete.”
That saddens me.
I suppose it’s a plus side that Starbucks is only testing bigger cold beverages as opposed to jumping straight into bigger everything, and supposedly places like McDonald’s already make these monstrosities (I wouldn’t be surprised), and I know I shouldn’t take anything I see on Facebook to heart, but I think these facetious online comments reflect a much deeper issue. America doesn’t need bigger portions!
Perhaps you wouldn’t expect this coming from me, a lover of food and drink. It’s true, I like stuffing my face occasionally, but mostly I believe in moderation. I may eat a lot, and I may be capable of eating fairly large amounts, but more often than not, I eat very spaced-out portions at intervals throughout the day. I believe in eating small servings of whatever one wants (within reason, and by this I mean mostly healthy food) along with leading an active lifestyle. I constantly bemoan the buffet-style dining halls at most colleges because they serve disgusting junk in heaping amounts, thus leading to overeating. In fact, buffets in general irritate me.
During my trip to China last summer, I noticed that in Chinese McDonald’s restaurants, the sizes labeled as large corresponded to “small” sizes here in the U.S., and the small sizes there would probably be sample sizes here. Why is it that we, in the U.S. especially, feel the need to make everything (including our own bodies) bigger and bigger beyond any reason?
Why is it that we tell perfectly healthy (I realize that eating disorders are an entirely different story), thin women to “eat a sandwich”? Why do we advocate “fat acceptance”? We tell ourselves that we need to mold systems and attitudes to fit societal norms, but what if the norm is, in reality, a social problem? Why do so many of us rely on caffeine, whose status as a drug we like to push to the back of our minds, to make it through the day?
If we all managed our time better, maybe we’d get enough sleep, and we wouldn’t need caffeine. If we all disciplined ourselves to eat less and more healthily and to exercise more, we wouldn’t plus-size ourselves and everything around us. Through downsizing, we might just learn frugality and conservation instead of waste and exorbitance.
Alas, in a perfect world…
The gargantuan Trenta looks horrific. It’s what I’d call “diabetes in a cup.” I agree with you, America really doesn’t need any bigger portions of anything… It’s no wonder people are dying even at a young age of 22 from cardiovascular diseases here in America. It’s sad and sickening.
I do not see the point in a HUGE cup of coffee. But then again, I never see the point of a size anything cup of coffee..
I suppose it would be very inconvenient, since halfway through your cup your coffee would be cold…
It’s horrible that people need even bigger doses of coffee everyday…
I’m sad that Starbucks is able to make money off of people who are addicted (well, this pretty much goes for anything really).
The sizing in the US is insane. Some of the places here shock me, but when I go to the US and see the HUGE sizes, I honestly can’t believe it.
You don’t need anything bigger than what you already have. 
Even the grande size gives me a stomach ache
The Trenta scares me. Thank God I don’t drink coffee…
I wish that instead of exacerbating the problem of the “bigger is better mentality” or circumventing it, people would actually address the root of the issue and go about “fixing” it. Being healthy is not such a bad thing!!
I definitely agree though there are actually people in Asia that feels that we need a bigger portion. They actually compared the portion here in Singapore with those in America or Australia and feel that we should increase the portion (especially the size of our burgers). Even though bigger may not be better, our burgers are really quite pathetic. It’s smaller than the size of my palm.
If we are talking about coffee, I think the current size at Starbucks is considered pretty big already.
I agree with you that our sizing is absolutely redonkulous, but I really don’t think I can agree with you that thin women are given a hard time and there’s lots of “fat acceptance.” If anything, I think we STILL strive for ultra-thin model figures but are faced with HUGE portioning problems everywhere we look. So basically, women are screwed.
In Starbucks’s defense, though, their cold beverages are like 75% ice anyway. What a waste of my money. I couldn’t shell out the money for a 31-ounce Starbucks drink without crying to myself over the complete lack of monetary control I have.
your point about the discrepancy of sizes is completely true. When my family/friends and I travel to Western countries, we always order small to share. The sizes over in the Western hemisphere always scare us, and we used to scoff that the sizes of servings there must be the cause of their obesity problems.. Bad, I know..
I also agree that we don’t NEED caffeine in our lives.. This trenta size is news to me.. I feel pretty sad for people who feel they need it. As it is my favorite drink in Starbucks is my Tall Java Chip Frappe. Grande or Vente are too big for me to finish..