The Endless Bowl

The other day I was eating Italian food in a restaurant and let me tell you, that food was so good! When I started felling full, I stopped eating. I looked down at my bowl and realized that it looked like more than half my food was leftover. Needless to say, I know that I did indeed eat quite a bit of that food and I know for a fact that more than half was gone. When placed my leftovers into a "to-go box" it looked like I barely had any food left. How could this be? Where did all the food go? The trick was, my friend, the optical illusion of "THE BOWL!"

Bowls are very good tricks restaurants use on their customers so that they can eat the maximum amount of food possible, which explains the high prices. Why are bowls so bad? Well, we as humans do not like to be wasteful. When we are younger, we are taught that everything must be cleared from our plates before we are allowed to leave the table. Now, when we go eat at any type of establishment, a bowl, since it is dome-ed at the bottom, holds more food, thus we believe that there is more food within it's container than there really is. Another problem is our upbringings. We, as Americans are not aware of normal portion sizes. "Bigger is better" we most often believe. However, bigger is not healthier. Would you believe a giant bowl of salad filled with grilled chicken is way healthier than a small hamburger? You my friend are very wrong. Yes, lettice is basically water, but the chicken is not. Chicken is a great source of protein, but protein also contains fat. A small burger and alot of chicken are very similar in many ways. The only difference is the chicken is surrounded by healthy lettice and vegetables, while burgers have a bread-bun, condaments, tomatoes, lettice, and cheese. Not as healthy sounding, but I bet that is way healthier than the ceaser or ranch dressing on that salad. Being brainwashed to believe that bigger is better in healthier versions is very very wrong.

A good cure for "The Bowl" is to ask for a to-go box ahead of time so you do not feel compelled to eat everything inside your bowl. Child-syndrom takes over and we feel that if we are not careful, we will be punished for "wasting" food.