Last month while locked in on the NCAA basketball tournament, I was particularly struck by the immense blitz of advertisements from the food sector – particularly from fast food and QSR operations – all focused on driving home the theme of “more food for little cost.”   

We are inundated with such messaging in the U.S. – from television and social media outlets to billboards to store signage and beyond. 

As a result, the theme of “more” (or “big”) is entrenched in our food culture.  We have been conditioned for so many years to expect large portion sizes that we now largely equate food value with quantity or portion size above all else.

The incessant stream of advertisements from food companies emphasizing large portion sizes, large quantities, and myriad versions of the value meal (including multiple permutations of some large number for some low price) has reinforced our culture of abundance toward food, which Tristram Stuart so effectively covered in his book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal.

At core, this culture of abundance differs sharply from the culture of responsibility toward food (borne of necessity) from the War years, resulting in a broad insufficient valuation of our food coupled with a lack of understanding of all of the resources that go into producing it. 

Since we don’t value food properly, we waste a lot of it (30-40%), because it is easy and relatively inexpensive to simply buy more.  The result is an entrenched system of overproduction, overconsumption, and excessive waste which comes at great cost to both planetary health and human health.

Further, because we are increasingly disconnected from where our food comes from, we are too accepting of the highly processed, low-nutrition options that dominate our food system.

Over the course of a few hours in March I began to log some of the many food-related advertisements on the quantity and value meal theme.  The first batch included Dunkin ($6 Meal Deal), Kentucky Fried Chicken (Every Tuesday, 8 pieces for $10), Arby’s ($6.99 Big Crispy Meal), Burger King ($5 Duo or $7 Trio), Chili’s (3 For Me $10.99 Meal), and Wing Stop ($9.99 3-Piece Tender Combo).

And in the following days I noted several more:  Wendy’s ($5 Biggie Bag, $1 Double Stack), McDonald’s ($5 McChicken Meal, and $6 McDouble Meal), Applebee’s (2 For $25 Meal), Outback Steak House (3 Course Meal for $14.99), Buffalo Wild Wings (20 Boneless Wings + Large Fries + 4 Dipping Sauces for $16.99).

It’s an impressive list of phrasing and offer combinations from the food company Marketing teams to drive home the “more for less” expectation.

Beyond these, Wendy’s added a “$1 after additional purchase” offer, Buffalo Wild Wings offered a “month of free” delivery option, and Olive Garden provided a “Buy One, Take One” offer.

So in addition to being urged to buy meals with a large amount of food, we are provided with options to get more of them.

Clearly, if we are instilling the idea that large portions are inexpensive, and delivery is free, we are promoting a culture of overconsumption  and normalizing a mindset that accepts high waste of food.

Wendy’s even noted that their $5 Biggie Bag carried an “Unlimited Time Offer,” so consumers are left thinking that they can get a lot of food at very low cost forever. 

And while Olive Garden feels the need to compete on volume, they at least give consumers the opportunity to consume some of that food at home (rather than wasting a lot of it in one restaurant sitting) with their “Buy One, Take One” offer.   

Last, the pinnacle of these advertisements came from Uber Eats, extolling the simple yet powerful message of “More Food” in partnership with Wendy’s and their “Buy One, Get One Double Stack Biggie Bag.”

That last phrase is impressive Marketing-speak, conveying “more” and “big” in all eight words.

So the March Madness period brings a special kind of food advertising madness in the U.S.

Beyond television advertising, I noted a large window advertisement in a Boston 7-11 offering any 2 pizza slices and any Pepsi product for $5, augmented with the capitalization of “BIGGER SLICES.”  And on the way home I noted the ubiquitous “2 for $6 Meal” offer at McDonald’s. 

Evidence of such messaging abounds in U.S. food retail stores as well, where the cereal aisle alone provides sufficient fodder for a doctoral dissertation on the many challenges of our food system.

Here the concept of large quantities of poor-quality, sugar-laden processed food is well entrenched.  During a recent shopping trip, I noted a 2 for $6 deal on large boxes of a new product from Kellogg’s – Glazed Donut Hole Apple Jack’s.  The display included a similar offer for another new product – Krave Chocolate Glazed Donut Holes.  Seriously.  This is the product innovation being promoted to our children.

The use of the term “Krave” is significant, as it is intended to make children “crave” more of this addictive highly processed product.

All of these offers of high quantity, poor quality food combinations make my colleagues in the Nutrition space cringe, of course, and rightly so.

I am not the first to write about the systemic problems here, the expectation (and overconsumption) of large portions and quantities of food at each meal, the low nutrition aspect of much of that food, and the associated overproduction and excessive waste – fueled by marketing campaigns as noted above – but there is something powerful about stepping back and reflecting on many of these advertisements together.

The combinations of high quantity/low-quality food offers continue to increase, while planetary health and human health continue to decline. 

This model is not sustainable, of course – the environmental, social, and financial costs are excessive. 

From a health standpoint, high consumption of ultra-processed foods is a driver of poor (and costly) health outcomes such as obesity and diet-related illness.  The CDC currently lists the prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults at 40%, and among children at 20%.  A 2021 study by the GAO pointed to the threat to Americans’ health from the increase in diet-related conditions, noting that the prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults was 19% higher in 2018 than in 2008.  And a 2024 paper from The Lancet showed sharp increases in the prevalence of obesity between 1990 and 2021 among both adolescents and adults.  The authors projected that by 2050, in most states, one in three adolescents and two in three adults will have obesity.

From a waste standpoint, ReFED’s recent 2025 U.S. Food Waste Report, From Surplus to Solutions, notes that the U.S. generated 74 million tons of surplus food in 2023 – equating to 31% of our food supply (442 pounds per capita) with a financial value of $382 billion.  Of this amount, only 2% was donated, while 85% went to waste destinations.

The report also states that this level of waste equated to 120 billion meals – enough to feed 1/3 of the U.S. population for one year – at a time when 47 million Americans are experiencing food insecurity. 

Environmentally, that surplus food accounted for 230 million MTCO2e, equivalent to the annual emissions of 54 million cars, and, critically, nearly three million metric tons of methane (10% of annual U.S. methane emissions).  Note:  Also see ReFED’s social cost of carbon calculation for the total surplus food in 2023, which they estimate at $47 billion.

Separately, the U.S. EPA notes that food waste accounts for 24% of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposed of in landfills, and that 58% of methane emissions released into the atmosphere from MSW landfills are attributed to food waste.  Note: For additional detail, see the EPA’s 2023 report: Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste.

Last, that level of food waste also has substantial impacts on water, land, biodiversity, and other scarce resources as well.

Changing Culture: Shifting to Less is More

The U.S. EPA just issued a new report updating the cost of consumer food waste to Americans, putting the annual figure at $728 per person per year, or $2,913 for a family of four.

We often reference the financial cost of our annual food waste as an opportunity area, noting the incentive it provides for individuals to change behavior.

And that’s true. 

But we also need to think more deeply on the flaws in our food system, including the business models, policies and subsidies, education (or lack thereof) and consumer behavior, that got us to this point. 

There’s a callousness to our improper valuation of food that leads us to expect so much of it and in turn waste so much of it.  That mindset has moved from normal to subliminal, reinforced by food company advertising, and perhaps the most insidious aspect is how it is revealed in our everyday actions.  I’ve covered such observations in prior posts, with examples here (Panera) and here (Fred Meyer). 

We’ve evolved to a U.S. food culture that is fixated on “more” – with serious externalities for human health and planetary health. 

As consumers, we are being conditioned to value quantity in food above all else, to overconsume, to tolerate the resulting waste – and to accept the environmental and health impacts. 

It’s a bad combination, made worse by the fact that much of our overconsumption involves highly processed, high sugar foods of low nutrient value which lead to high levels of obesity and diet-related illness. 

It is a food culture in need of a shift, from one of abundance to one of responsible consumption and production of healthier foods.

We’ve seen that our period of March Madness was one of food advertising madness.

We would all be much better off if we valued food properly, accounting for its true cost, and moved away from a culture which prioritizes “big” and “more” to one where less is more, and where quality is prioritized over sheer quantity.

There’s an incredible opportunity for food companies to lead this change, and to bring their marketers along as well.

(Note: for additional information on this topic, see my 2017 post, Go Big or Go Responsible).