One way restaurants compete to get your dollar is to offer you larger portions that make you feel like you are getting a deal. You've probably noticed how fast food chains offer items in "super-sizes."

Food companies call this "value-pricing." It means encouraging a customer to spend a little extra money to purchase a larger portion. In dollars and cents it's true, you get more when you buy the "super-size" portion.

But you might be surprised to learn the total cost of eating that extra food!

How "value marketing" means extra profit

Value marketing is a technique that businesses use to increase profits. Here's how it works:

As cheap as fast food seems, only a small amount of the price you pay actually goes for the food you eat. Let's say you buy a $1.25 bag of french fries from my franchise, O'Besity's.

It costs me about a dollar to produce that bag of fries. The potatoes, oil, and salt used to make those fries cost me 20 cents. The other 80 cents go toward my other costs of getting you those french fries, like packaging, wages, and advertising.

If I add another half-portion of fries to your bag, and raise the price to $1.50, the extra potatoes, oil and salt I put in only cost me another 10 cents. My other costs didn't go up at all. You still got more, but I just made 15 cents in pure profit. That means my profit margin increased from 20% (0.25 � 1.25) to 23.3% (0.35 � 1.50).

Big deal, you say? Well on $1 million in sales, an extra 3.3% profit equals $33,000, thank you.

Food marketers have a job to do; get customers to spend as much as possible on their products. They use other means besides "super-sizing". A technique called "bundling" gets you to purchase larger sizes and more side orders, even when you're not terribly hungry.

When you see the menu items grouped into meals with names like "value meal" or "combo," that's bundling. Restaurants encourage customers to upgrade their orders to a better "value" by purchasing a bundle containing larger portions and side dishes. These bundles are more profitable to the company. Fast food "value pricing" techniques like super-sizing and bundling tempt people into buying and eating too much.

OK, so you feel like you got a good deal. Maybe you did; if eating all those fries was actually good for you!

Who chooses what you eat?

The super-size Extra Value Meal at MacDonald's gets you a Quarter Pounder with cheese, super-size fries, and a super-size soda pop for a whopping 1,550 calories! That's about three-quarters of the food you need for a whole day. If you overeat by just 150 calories a day, that can turn into 15 pounds of body fat in one year.

It's not the food marketers' job to choose healthy food for you to eat, or to tell you when to stop eating. That's up to you.

Fast food is often fat food

The food choices you make affect how you feel for the next few hours and how you live for years to come. Choose to eat too much and (unless you get some heavy exercise to burn up those calories) you will carry that choice around on your body like a backpack. Fat sneaks up on you little by little if you're not on guard. Each one of us has to think about what and how much to eat every day.

You are growing and building your body out of the foods you eat. You need to take in foods that deliver nutrients. The foods available at fast food restaurants are too often the wrong food. French fries and soda pop have lots of sugar and fat but very little healthy nutrition in them. Fruits, vegetables or milk are better choices. Note: Hot apple pie does not count as a fruit!

Is bigger better? No!

It's possible to be overweight and happy, but most heavy people aren't happy about it. Why should you let fast food marketers make you unhappy just for their profit? Are you really getting your money's worth by spending and eating more?

Food is not used in the same way as other things you buy like CDs or clothes. As consumers, everyone needs to recognize the value marketing practices for what they are: penny-wise but pound-foolish. Look out for yourself by choosing reasonable portions at reasonable prices. Let the restaurants where you spend your money regularly know how you feel next time they offer you a "super-size" or a "value" bundle. Sometimes bigger isn't better.

Follow your own "energy policy"

You can enjoy your food and good health, too If you control your eating as you control your spending. Fat is technically like a savings account. It's stored for future use, protection against a rainy day.

We're too food-wealthy! We save up calories stored as fat that we never spend as energy. Intake should equal output.

If you consume and spend food, money and energy (and who doesn't?) you're likely to do some of it in fast food restaurants. Take control with your own personal energy policy. Here are some suggestions:

• Keep your balance. If you're splurging at one meal today, make your other meals small and sensible.
• Budget calories like money. When you eat fattening foods, be sure to spend extra calories in exercise.
• Learn what makes a healthy portion size. Find out the calories and recommended portions for your favorite foods. Compare the nutrition of fast food menu items; Check this web site for the information you'll need.
• Be independent. Pack your own lunch or snacks, and carry a water bottle.

Share the health

Energy policies to help your friends, family, and community:

• Encourage your family to eat meals together "family-style".
• When you're in a restaurant with friends or family, encourage sharing of food. Go ahead and buy the "Big Gulp" or the "Super-Size Fries" for the bargain price, but ask for extra plates or cups and share the wealth!
• Find sources of information (like the links in this article) and spread the news around. Ask your teachers, scout club leader, etc. to create programs about fast food marketing and nutrition.
• Challenge your friends to figure out what you're each spending on food. Make a pact to pack your lunches more often and save what you would've spent on food for something fun you can do together. What could you buy with the money you saved passing up those "Value Meals"?

For more information...

Visit these links if you are interested in learning more about the issues surrounding fast food marketing.

Here is a government report on the economics of "super-sizing" at fast food restaurants.

Here is an article that claims that McDonald's understated nutrition numbers on its web site.

Read about healthy eating tips and special notes for teenagers here.