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Role of Portion Size in the Context of a Healthy, Balanced Diet: A Case Study of European Countries

Over the past decades, a generalised increase in food portion sizes has probably contributed to the growing global obesity epidemic. Increasing awareness of appropriate portion sizes could contribute to reversing this trend through better control of calorie intake. In this study, a comparison of sta...

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Autores principales: Carruba, Michele O., Ragni, Maurizio, Ruocco, Chiara, Aliverti, Sofia, Silano, Marco, Amico, Andrea, Vaccaro, Concetta M., Marangoni, Franca, Valerio, Alessandra, Poli, Andrea, Nisoli, Enzo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10049364/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36982138
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065230
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author Carruba, Michele O.
Ragni, Maurizio
Ruocco, Chiara
Aliverti, Sofia
Silano, Marco
Amico, Andrea
Vaccaro, Concetta M.
Marangoni, Franca
Valerio, Alessandra
Poli, Andrea
Nisoli, Enzo
author_facet Carruba, Michele O.
Ragni, Maurizio
Ruocco, Chiara
Aliverti, Sofia
Silano, Marco
Amico, Andrea
Vaccaro, Concetta M.
Marangoni, Franca
Valerio, Alessandra
Poli, Andrea
Nisoli, Enzo
author_sort Carruba, Michele O.
collection PubMed
description Over the past decades, a generalised increase in food portion sizes has probably contributed to the growing global obesity epidemic. Increasing awareness of appropriate portion sizes could contribute to reversing this trend through better control of calorie intake. In this study, a comparison of standard portion sizes in European countries for various food categories shows a wide variability of their importance for food, nutrient, and energy consumption according to government and institutional websites. On the other hand, the overall averages appear to be largely in line with the values indicated by the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, which is the most comprehensive and detailed document among those evaluated. The exceptions are milk and yoghurt, for which the reference portions in Europe are generally higher, and vegetables and legumes, for which portions are smaller than those reported in the Italian document. Moreover, the portion sizes of staple foods (e.g., pasta and potatoes) vary according to different food traditions. It is reasonable to consider that the creation of harmonised standard reference portions common to the European countries, based on international guidelines and scientific evidence, would significantly contribute to consumers’ nutritional education and ability to make informed choices for a healthy diet.
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spelling pubmed-100493642023-03-29 Role of Portion Size in the Context of a Healthy, Balanced Diet: A Case Study of European Countries Carruba, Michele O. Ragni, Maurizio Ruocco, Chiara Aliverti, Sofia Silano, Marco Amico, Andrea Vaccaro, Concetta M. Marangoni, Franca Valerio, Alessandra Poli, Andrea Nisoli, Enzo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Over the past decades, a generalised increase in food portion sizes has probably contributed to the growing global obesity epidemic. Increasing awareness of appropriate portion sizes could contribute to reversing this trend through better control of calorie intake. In this study, a comparison of standard portion sizes in European countries for various food categories shows a wide variability of their importance for food, nutrient, and energy consumption according to government and institutional websites. On the other hand, the overall averages appear to be largely in line with the values indicated by the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, which is the most comprehensive and detailed document among those evaluated. The exceptions are milk and yoghurt, for which the reference portions in Europe are generally higher, and vegetables and legumes, for which portions are smaller than those reported in the Italian document. Moreover, the portion sizes of staple foods (e.g., pasta and potatoes) vary according to different food traditions. It is reasonable to consider that the creation of harmonised standard reference portions common to the European countries, based on international guidelines and scientific evidence, would significantly contribute to consumers’ nutritional education and ability to make informed choices for a healthy diet. MDPI 2023-03-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10049364/ /pubmed/36982138 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065230 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Carruba, Michele O.
Ragni, Maurizio
Ruocco, Chiara
Aliverti, Sofia
Silano, Marco
Amico, Andrea
Vaccaro, Concetta M.
Marangoni, Franca
Valerio, Alessandra
Poli, Andrea
Nisoli, Enzo
Role of Portion Size in the Context of a Healthy, Balanced Diet: A Case Study of European Countries
title Role of Portion Size in the Context of a Healthy, Balanced Diet: A Case Study of European Countries
title_full Role of Portion Size in the Context of a Healthy, Balanced Diet: A Case Study of European Countries
title_fullStr Role of Portion Size in the Context of a Healthy, Balanced Diet: A Case Study of European Countries
title_full_unstemmed Role of Portion Size in the Context of a Healthy, Balanced Diet: A Case Study of European Countries
title_short Role of Portion Size in the Context of a Healthy, Balanced Diet: A Case Study of European Countries
title_sort role of portion size in the context of a healthy, balanced diet: a case study of european countries
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10049364/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36982138
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065230
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