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One of the most important pieces of information in a nutrition label is the serving size. Many people look at the calorie count, and are happy to see low numbers.
Some products come with ridiculously small serving sizes, for example “11 chips” for potato chips, or “2 cookies” for Oreos. These don’t make sense, because nobody eats so little. So why are these serving sizes used?
Those serving sizes were set by FDA/USDA VERY LONG time ago, when people ate normal portions served on normal sized dishes.
The FDA/USDA surveyed consumers and set a “reference amount customarily consumed” (RACC). The RACC was the amount of food normally consumed per eating occasion by persons four years of age or older.
(Cup of drink then - 12 oz, now 32 on. Dinner plate from 8" to 12" and bigger!! )
Take a look at the images here, courtesy of the Center for Sciencein the Public Interest (CSPI). What do you say? Is it time to super-shrink fast-food?
I can't imagine that, in the time since potato chips were invented, anybody has EVER eaten a serving size of 11 chips. I realize that over time, people have gotten desensitized to smaller portion sizes, but I also think that serving sizes are kept unrealistically small.
Location: Los Angeles>Little Rock>Houston>Little Rock
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I am not shocked. I've always paid attention to portion size and don't eat out very often at all. If I do, I take home half my meal . I normally order salad and an appetizer to share with my husband.
I sent an email to Clabber Girls about this, but they didn't reply. There is a recipe on their label for baking powder biscuits. The nutrition panel says an average serving of Powder is 1/8 teaspoon. But the recipe for biscuits calls for 2-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, and makes 8 biscuits. Which means they think an average serving of baking powder biscuits is 0.4 biscuits.
Of course, the reason for that is baking powder is nearly all sodium, and they can claim that a serving has only 65 mg of sodium. A whole biscuit has 162 mg of sodium, just from the baking powder.
It's the sodium content that they are all trying to lie about, on all products, because they pack so much salt into everything. Did you know that one ounce of corn flakes or special-k contains more sodium than one ounce of potato chips? Read the label if you don't believe me.
I don't eat breakfast and I don't really snack. So that takes care of 2 of the 4 posted.
Thankfully, my eyes are usually bigger than my stomach, so that takes care of the other 2.
And I don't think I've eaten at any of those places, or most chains in years.
Fortunately my body works for me when my mind doesn't and tells me when enough is enough.
Most times I need just a small portion of something to sate my appetite. I like variety and all the food catagories.
I think balance is the key. ... But that applies for most things in life, doesn't it?
although it's not surprising it is disheartening. to actually see it visually tells us that we eat 2-3 servings instead of just 1 and most times we accompany those things with other foods. sandwich plus chips plus a drink. and in the case of chips and cookies we eat enough for a whole room of people.
like others have said, i wish they would start to serve food in it's actual 1 person serving size (when eating out) and lower the price. we would all be better off.
restaurants would benefit just as much. they would need to buy smaller quantities of supplies so they wouldn't be losing money.
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