Being well advanced into my sixth decade and having eaten out a bit recently (on holiday in England) I wanted to make an observation and a recommendation

First a missing element in the public health message on obesity is that over the age of 40/50 if you want to avoid weight gain you should simply eat and drink less than when younger

I have noticed that anyone I know over sixty who wants to avoid overeating ends up either eating only a starter, leaving a lot of uneaten food or asking in hushed tones - and usually unsuccessfully - whether they can order a child’s portion

Second, it would really help older people to have an equivalent of children’s portions for adults with modest appetites; they might be called ‘modest’ or ‘balanced’ sizes. They would only need to be a little cheaper (say 20% less) so it wouldn’t need to cost business anything

Perhaps conscientious restaurants are already doing this but if so I haven’t come across them. So how about a ‘modest portion choices’ campaign to help cut obesity, reduce food waste and save people a bit of money?

Great response to this thread. All good policy ideas already exist somewhere so it’s heartening to hear there are places - from Scottish chip shops to Canadian restaurants - which do cater for smaller appetitites among older people - now we need to make it a norm #modestportions