Anyone who has been to a fast food outlet recently has probably been offered to have their meal "super-sized" for just a few cents more. It seems like such a bargain, many of us happily accept. But it's a good deal gone bad for our waistlines.

While most of us have noticed that food portion sizes have grown bigger than ever, no empirical data has ever documented the actual increases. Now a new American study has crunched the numbers and come up with some startling facts.