Coming from Europe & Asia, the amount of crap fed in America is just crazy: like “is that for ONE person?” (more like an entire table of 4) since what is considered “normal” is just beyond what my stomach can handle, whenever I see their portion sizes: it makes me puke. (No wonder why they have a higher rate of obesity…)
From the 50s to the 90s, the US was in a massive wealth and growth cycle, and people demanded value for their money because the consumers had the power.
That value was provided by large portion sizes for low cost, which normalized the idea of eating a large amount of food for every meal.
Now we’re just sick and obese and used to it even though the nutritional quality of the food has dramatically plummeted.