Tackling Obesity By Hand Serving Sizes

Haven't we all got that feeling these days that we're all eating too much, or rather, none of us really know how much is actually 'too much'. Sure, bottles, jars and boxes offer food content ratings and ingredients etc, but really, how much jam is 'too much' jam in a morning?

Designed by Royal College of Art graduate Ponsawan Vuthisatkul, this wonderfully light, white and well-proportioned set of cutlery is aiming to really teach us the concept of only eating the correct food portion amounts. A collection titled The New Normal, the culinary toolset includes six different serving apparatus. Beautiful in their size as they are wonderful in their contents - we assume you can cook - Vuthisatkul explains that the entire idea is borne from how nutritionists compare portion sizes to that of hand shapes. For example, it is recommended that we only eat a fist of carb, a palm of protein, a thumb of fat, a cupped hand of fruit, two hands of vegetable, etc.

Believing that mathematical instruments can be wrongly interpreted, Vuthisatkul has done away with suchlike to guide the cooking experience and relied entirely on the trusty hands - that said, are all hands the same size? In attempt to teach people of basic food portions in both the short and long term, Vuthisatkul's concept is particularly aimed at the 39% of adults who are overweight around the world. As Vuthisatkul theorises, one major impetus in the rise of obesity is the individual perception of what is 'normal'. Is one chocolate bar 'too much', or is two 'only enough'? With each of the bowls sized to different hand sizes and cup volumes, who knows what the future lies in tackling obesity, but this could certainly be an interesting way to go about it. Discover more about this university project online at: RCA.ac.uk

Photography credit : Royal College of Art