A Product of Our Environment?

I went out to eat the other day and was OVERJOYED to discover another place which will allow adults to order off the kids' menu. But here's the amazing thing...I ate less than half of it & was satisfied. Why was this amazing? B/c I was far from hungry afterwards. They brought me enough food that I could have very well shared with someone else! Didn't seem quite right. Afterall, this is a "kid's serving." Shouldn't it be a severely light meal by adult standards? Then I had a series of thoughts hit... There are several developed countries on this planet whose populations are, for the most part, of a healthy weight. Interestingly, their diets consist of a lot of no-no carbs like rice and noodles. So how is it that they manage to stay lean? Meanwhile, half of the U.S. is overweight. This would mean half isn't--half of every age, height, race, and gender. And I would venture to guess that very few of them are blessed with the metabolism of superman, or that they survive on little else but salad and tofu. In fact, I see them eat real food every day--just not in huge amounts. There's a definite connection to these 2 groups (other countries who do not have weight issues and the half of our nation which does not)--they eat the amount of food the body calls for. Not the amount that sounds good, not the amount which a restaurant dictates is a "serving", not the amount which is socially acceptable--but the amount their body is asking for. I truly think this is why 50% of our country is struggling. We are products of our environment--one that builds food into every special occasion and doles it out in huge servings which eventually become "normal" to the human mind. So why is it that some of us fall on this side of that 50% and others fall on the "blessed" side? Who knows? Maybe we're wired to have more of a weakness when it comes to food whereas some of the skinny folk struggle with a completely different nemesis--alcohol, tobacco, compulsive shopping, etc. The point is I'm realizing that I'm going to have to consciously go against my environment (i.e. adult-size restaurant portions or how much potato salad Great Aunt Gertrude THINKS I should eat since she made it herself...from SCRATCH!) if I'm going to become and (more importantly) stay--thin. I can't help that this means food will get wasted. Much as I'd love to order half of a small fry, just don't see it as possible in the near future. So it's up to me to pay more attention to my body and to God's prompting than to what my environment tries to dictate. Am I a product of my environment? Undoubtedly yes. But I don't have to stay that way--and I don't intend to.