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Ray Kroc had to be convinced by the marketing dept that people would go for this

In this section of Omnivore’s Dilemma, author Michael Pollan discusses the supersize-ing and big gulp-ing of the American diet, which is one reason why 35 percent of the people in this country are obese.

One might think that people would stop eating and drinking these gargantuan portions as soon as they felt full, but it turns out hunger doesn’t work that way. Researchers have found that people presented with large portions will eat up to 30 percent more than they would otherwise. Human appetite, it turns  out, is surprisingly elastic, which makes excellent evoluntionary sense: It behooved our hunter-gatherer ancestors to feast whenever the opportunity presented itself, allowing them to build up reserves of fat against future famine.

Obesity researchers call this the “thrifty gene.” And while the gene represents a useful adaptation in an environment of food scarcity and unpredictability, it’s a disaster in an environment of fast-food abundance, when the opportunity to feast presents itself 24/7.

Our bodies are storing reserves of fat against a famine that never comes.