The Changing Face of Food Size

The Little Thickburger, which is not so little.

A few years ago, I collected vintage Pentleton wool shirts and took note at the time how much the male body had changed over time. Shirts from the 1950s labeled "XL" would slip neatly onto a medium build today and a medium would fit my granddaughter, who's 6.

Men were smaller then. We were all smaller then.

So why did we get so big--and fat?

Hardee's, Mickey D's, BK, the Colonel, Taco Bell and a whole list of fast food restaurants whose primary fare is grease, flower, salt, sugar and calories. And even they're stretching it, so to speak.

Hardees has a new 1/4-pound burger called the "Little Thickburger." It is the same size of Burger King's standard Whopper, which, in its time really was a whopper.