America has a meal portion problem

Fresno State student Logan Ojeda usually eats on the run and doesn’t pay attention to portion size.

“I’m not really home that often I’m either hanging out with friends going to work or I’m at school so I don’t really have much time to cook something at home so I do tend to eat out a lot I would say,” Ojeda says.

Like Ojeda, most Americans commonly do not follow the healthy portion sizes recommended by the American Heart Association. Dr. David High, who practices in naturopathic Medicine, believes the U.S. glamorizes overeating and unhealthy food portions, which in turn earns the food industry more financial gain.

“The red and the yellow, those two colors stimulate people to eat more,” High says. “So McDonald’s, they have the red and the yellow arches so when they put that on they know people are going to eat more, and then they make a bigger profit.”

It’s difficult to find restaurants on the go that provide a properly portioned meal.

Erika Ireland, a professor of nutrition at CSU Fresno, says that in order to have a healthy portioned meal you must divide half of your plate and fill it with both fruits and vegetables. One-quarter of your plate should be fiber-rich carbohydrates and one-quarter of the plate should be protein. Ireland says, unfortunately, the allure of fast food compared to spending 20 minutes to cook a meal is a constant battle.

Fresno State student Mallory Coit says she feels most students don’t have time to cook a healthy meal.

“I feel like the American grind culture if that makes sense like the always hustling doing something being productive like on a grind there’s no time to rest,” Coit says. “Like there’s no time to sleep; there’s no time to eat like a proper meal because you’re always hustling on the move.”