A growing movement is tackling a public health problem that's been plaguing America for 50 years: Portion sizes are way too big.

Why it matters: Massive portions at restaurants have been linked to obesity — and all the health risks associated with it.

• Plus, U.S. restaurants waste up to 33 billion pounds of food a year.

🍪 Zoom in: In one early-2000s study, researchers sampled foods served at America's most popular fast food joints and fast casual family restaurants, and compared the portions sold at those establishments to federal guidelines.

• Cookies were 700% larger than standard portion sizes. Plates of pasta were 480% larger. Steaks, 224%. Bagels, 195%.
• It's likely that those portions have gotten even bigger over the last two decades.

🔭 But something is changing, the N.Y. Times reports.

• Three in four consumers now say they want smaller portions for less money, according to a National Restaurant Association report.

Some eateries have already "snackified" their menus, offering smaller items for cheap.

• Some Burger Kings cut a 10-piece chicken nugget order to eight. Subway added $3 wraps.

Others have kept portion sizes the same — but played up leftovers, and experimented with marketing the meal as "dinner today, lunch tomorrow," The Times notes.

👀 What to watch: One option would be to let people pick their portion sizes the way they choose toppings or sides.

• "I can customize everything about my order except the size," Dana Gunders, president of ReFED, an organization fighting food waste, told The Times. "People want this choice and they are not getting it."

The sunset of the day — and probably the year — comes from reader Ruth Hinkley of Carlsbad, Calif.

• The setting sun is reflected in an infinity pool with the Pacific in the background.