Increasing portion sizes

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I was chatting to our lodger about the changes in the availability of food over the past century or so. Yes diets have changed in some ways (the availability of ready-made meals for example) but many other things have not changed that much, but they have just become much more common and readily available. And another change that I find really noticeable – but other people probably don’t notice because they don’t have as many ‘old things’ as I do – is the increase in plate sizes, which naturally leads to increased portion sizes, because you can’t really serve someone a small slice of cake on a huge plate, that just makes you look stingy. In the photo you can clearly see the increase in plate sizes over the past century or so. On the left is a tea-plate from a set I inherited from my great aunt. It actually has the date stamped on the bottom, 1915, and it was one of a set of six together with a rectangular sandwich plate for serving. In the centre is a tea-plate I remember my mother buying in the 1970s. And on the right is one I bought about 20 years ago. All these plates are just tea-plates or side plates, but the most recent one is almost as big as an old-fashioned dinner plate (yes these have undergone similar size inflation). A dainty little fairy cake, such as I used to make as a child, looks like plenty on an old plate but would look lost on the modern one – so now we all have to have two or three at a time, or else a big muffin or a slice of something larger. No wonder people are eating more. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.