Eating

A portion is a portion is a portion -- unless, that is, it's a giant, super, king or grande portion, in which case it's probably trouble. Over the last 30 years, portions have grown by heaps and mounds in restaurants across the country and in many homes as well. During that same time, the waistlines of Americans consuming those mega-meals have grown more and more generous too -- to the point that now two-thirds of American adults are considered overweight.

At 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, Crazy Legs Conti stays in shape with jogging (he's run two marathons) and six to eight small, healthful meals a day, heavy on the protein. Most days. And then there are days when he binges big-time, like the Sunday a few weeks ago when he scarfed a bushel of Florida sweet corn in no time flat. This was not self-indulgence. It was self-disciplined preparation for the April 27 National Sweet Corn Eating Championship in Palm Beach, Fla.

When life gets tough, the stressed often get hungry. Exactly how many people experience stress-related eating isn't known since there are no national surveys to measure it. But there's growing scientific interest in the topic. "Fight or flight is the normal response to stress," says Tatjana van Strien, professor of psychology at Radboud University in the Netherlands. "All the blood goes to the muscles so that you're ready for action and not for eating....

WHEN it comes to dining habits, young children may be more like animals than like adults. Adults eat more in large groups than in small groups because they linger and they socialize. Animals eat more in large groups probably because there is competition for the food. When researchers sat 54 children, ages 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 , down for a graham cracker snack -- sometimes at tables for three, other times at tables for nine -- the kids ate 30% more in the larger group.

Nearly everyone gets food cravings from time to time. Pregnant women are famous for their midnight yearnings for pickles and ice cream. And the desire for chocolate is the stuff of legend. It's tempting to believe -- as many people do -- that cravings are the body's way of telling us we're lacking a certain nutrient that the food we crave can supply. Chocolate, the belief goes, might soothe a broken heart by replacing compounds lost in oceans of tears.

NO longer satisfied by three meals a day, Americans have become accustomed to noshing whenever hunger hits. On any given day, about a quarter of Americans skip breakfast and 1 in 8 skip lunch, but 90% treat themselves to a snack, according to the International Deli-Dairy-Bakery Assn. In 2002, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about 86% of Americans admit to eating between meals on any given day.

What's the official word on letting your mouth stray beyond the breakfast-lunch-dinner circuit? Scientists have yet to figure it out. For one, snacking is tough to study. Try giving volunteers their meals in a controlled lab setting, and they don't eat close to how they would normally. Ask them to try to remember what they ate yesterday in the real world, and they'll likely be way off in their reports -- either because they don't remember or because they don't want to remember.

The picky eating habits of children can drive parents to distraction. Foods that smell funny, or are too hot, too cold, too crunchy or too mushy: all are candidates for rejection. And when it comes to trying to get kids to eat their vegetables, the task often seems insurmountable. Youngsters naturally prefer tasty foods that are high in calories -- a nod to their biology, which is designed to ensure adequate intake while they're growing rapidly.

A California man smashed the world record for hot dog eating, gobbling more than 59 franks in 12 minutes. Joey Chestnut, 23, of San Jose shattered the record held by Takeru Kobayashi of Japan by downing 59 1/2 -- with buns -- at the Southwest Regional Hot Dog Eating Championship in Tempe, Ariz. The old record was 53 3/4.

ADVANCING age does have its perks: wisdom, recreational vehicles and, now, sanctioned snacking. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002, Claire Zizza, a researcher at Auburn University's Department of Nutrition and Food Science, compared the diets of more than 2,000 seniors 65 and older. She found that the 84% who snacked consumed significantly more daily calories (protein, carbohydrates and total fat) than nonsnackers.