More is Better?: Part 1

The other night, I was disappointedly reminded of something I already knew. That we Americans just tend to over-do it often and unnecessarily when it comes to food. Just a few weeks ago, our family moved into our first home. With a garage full of boxes to unpack, a 2 year old and a 4 month old to take care of and our sanity to maintain... I asked my husband to ease our load by picking up dinner while he was out running a few errands. He came home with a delicious pepperoni pizza. Vegetarian pizza is usually my favorite, but I love pizza in general. On this particular evening, I was reminded just why I usually go vegetarian in regards to pizza.He brought home this pepperoni pizza which contained FAR too much meat on it. We decided to intervene by taking off some of the meat and adding the little spinach and few pepper slices we had in our refrigerator. We were able to remove about 30 slices of pepperoni and (in my opinion) the pizza still contained more than enough meat. I didn't feel we were skimping it on the pepperoni. As I ate, I couldn't stop thinking about how we over-do it when it comes to portion sizes and how we fail to practice moderation. It's not that we can't consume things like pepperoni, but why can't we savor and enjoy a smaller amount of these less-than healthy items? Why do we as Americans respond to making sure we get our "money's worth" when it comes to food? Especially when that often comes at an unhealthy price? Why do we think more is better?