Oh, I remember. I can remember back when I was a kid and how the 32 oz “Big Gulp” (or the competing convenience store equivalent) was considered absolutely colossal and a bit absurd. And when a 44 oz drink was introduced, it was definitely considered ridiculous. Back then for soft drinks, a child drink was 4-6 oz, a “small” was maybe 8 oz, a “medium” was 12-16 oz, and a “Large” was 22 oz as best I can remember.
Now the 32 oz is a “medium”, with the 44 being a “large” at most fast food places and convenience stores. The kid size is probably 8 oz now if I had to guess by looking at it.
I don’t know about restaurant portions being noticeably smaller at most restaurants in Europe; from what I recall from several European trips is that they’re not giving you bird-sized portions by any means. What they aren’t doing is competing on portion size, like they do here. I think that for whatever reason (cheap food prices?) US restaurants started competing with each other on the portion size per dollar, because people are basically bargain shopping for food, which I gather is something not really done in Europe, or not to the same extent.
So as a result, we have super-huge soft drink sizes, absurdities like 1/2 lb hamburgers, the Cheesecake Factory, double and triple fast food hamburgers, and so on. None of which were the case in say… 1981. I remember when the Quarter Pounder or Big Mac at McDonalds or the Whopper at Burger King were the kind of thing that only someone’s Dad ate, if he was especially hungry, not the default sized burger for everyone.