Portion size and energy content of lunches eaten outside the home

Peer reviewed / Manuscript (original) received: 14 September 2020 / Revision accepted: 05 November 2020

An explorative analysis of selected meals

Introduction Overweight and obesity are among the greatest health challenges that Germany currently faces. According to the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults (DEGS1), 67% of men and 53% of women in Germany have a Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m², and are therefore overweight. The prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²) is 23% for men and 24% for women [1]. There are several reasons for this, but a high energy intake plays a major role.

Various trends in nutrition that have developed over the last few decades may be aggravating the problem of overweight and obesity. These trends include eating outside the home, excessively large portion sizes for meals eaten outside the home and the high energy density of these meals. In the USA, between 1977/78 and 2008, the proportion of daily energy intake consumed outside the home rose from 18% [2] to 35% [3] of total energy intake. A similar trend can be observed in Germany. Here, the number of people eating out at least once a day increased by more than 25% between 1991 and 2002 [4]. The 2011 Nestlé study on eating behavior in Germany also found a sustained trend towards more meals eaten outside the home [5]. Eating out is known to correlate with increased BMI [9] because it results in increased fat and energy intake [6–8]. ...

Abstract

In Germany, little is known about the portion sizes and energy content of lunches eaten outside the home. The present study aimed to investigate the portion sizes and the energy content of five popular lunches (pizza with salami, doner kebab, Currywurst with french fries, Asianudeln with chicken, and Schweinebraten with dumplings and coleslaw) from three different restaurants and on two different days. The energy content was measured by bomb calorimetry (energy_bomb) and using nutrition software (energy_software). The data were analyzed descriptively. Portion sizes varied between meals and restaurants. One portion of Currywurst with french fries weighed 318 g on average (min.: 272 g, max.: 372 g), followed by doner kebap, pizza with salami, Asianudeln with chicken, and Schweinebraten with sides (769 g on average; min.: 594 g, max.: 976 g). Overall, the investigated lunches had a mean energyb of 935 kcal and a mean energys of 792 kcal. These findings show that these lunches are typically served with a large portion size and have a high energy content. Current recommendations state that lunch should make up no more than one third of daily energy intake, but these lunches exceed those values for most adults, even without considering energy-containing beverages and desserts. Given the high prevalence of obesity, it would be preferable to reduce energy intake from lunches eaten outside the home and introduce mandatory labeling.

Keywords: energy content, portion size, obesity, body weight, out-of-home consumption

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