The apostles are eating more and more! An interesting study done by scholars shows that artistic illustrations of the Last Supper depict the food portions growing ever larger over the course of history. Between the years 1000 and 2000 the food on the plates has increased by 70% and the bread by 23%.
While the Gospels tell of several “super-sizing” miracles that Christ was involved in (the fish and loaves miracle for example), this latest substantial increase of food can be linked more to artistic perceptions than to Christ himself. A team of scholars have studied 52 artist’s renditions of the Last Supper and published their findings online on Tuesday in the International Journal of Obesity.
Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab and author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think " was quoted as saying “I think people assume that increased serving sizes, or 'portion distortion,' is a recent phenomenon, but this research indicates that it's a general trend for at least the last millennium."
To support their findings, Wansink and his brother Craig, a biblical scholar at Virginia Wesleyan College, studied 52 depictions of the Last Supper painted between the year 1000 and the year 2000. They used computers to compare the size of the disciple’s heads with the size of their plates, food and bread they found that food portions increased dramatically over the period of a millennium.
The Wansinks, are using this data to argue that portion growth may have a provenance far older than industrial farming and the economics of takeout food. Rather they propose that it is a natural result of “dramatic socio-historic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food" over the millennium in question, said The Los Angeles Times.
(Read the full story at http://latimes.com/news)