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The serving sizes are kept so small so you won't get shocked by the calories/sodium/sugar/fat amounts.
Who eats a 1/3 of a canned food. Or drink 6-8 oz of beverage?? Or eat 1" cube of cheese? Or get satisfied with 8 oz TV dinner?
Nobody.
Look at the huge serving plates and 64floz mugs... Those small portions would barely stain them and definitely look very sad on those plates.
Sales gimmicks!!
That is one reason. Another is to make buyers think they can feed more people from that box of whatever.
But it is nothing new. I used to prepare one box of mac and cheese to eat by myself, minus part of the cheese powder which I thought was too much. IIRC, that box was supposedly 4 servings.
Yeah, you have to watch that "serving size".
There are two brands of canned chili that I used buy for my eat-at-the-desk workdays.
Both are 15 oz.
Brand A says 1010 mg sodium per serving.
Brand B says 990 mg sodium per serving.
I'm going to eat the whole can everytime, plus some crackers and maybe a chocolate bar. I was hungry back then.
Brand A say one serving per can = 1010 mg sodium.
Brand B says two servings per can. That's 1980 mg and that's a lot of salt.
Forget about the sneaky downsizing what the heck serving size ONE slice of bread? Can you be anymore dishonest and deceptive, can you food industry, can you reach a new low?
Can you show a big nice plate of food in the picture then put something nothing like it in the box?
Low lives.
You mean the label on the product? Like the nutrition info on the package of a loaf of bread?
It's always been this way. I read labels. When the product says on the front Only 100 calories per serving! I look at the label and see that it's this tiny amount...not really a serving for any adult.
Some breads do have 2 slices as the serving size.
BUT...having had to watch my weight all my life, having been on countless diets incl. Weight Watchers, I think that Americans way overestimate what a normal serving size is for some foods. In France, for instance, servings are smaller. And in looking up what the body needs for protein and healthy serving sizes of meats, it is really pretty small, compared to what the average American eats. But bear in mind that the average American is overweight.
The recommended serving of meat (chicken breast, ground meat burger without the bun, steak, etc.) is, I think, around 3 to 4 ounces? Something like that. For a woman, it'd be closer to the 3 ounce size.
I don't pay attention to what the government tells me is a serving size. I dip like my grandparents did in the 50's and before. Then I go out and work it off and then repeat the process. That's life.
You mean the label on the product? Like the nutrition info on the package of a loaf of bread?
It's always been this way. I read labels. When the product says on the front Only 100 calories per serving! I look at the label and see that it's this tiny amount...not really a serving for any adult.
Some breads do have 2 slices as the serving size.
BUT...having had to watch my weight all my life, having been on countless diets incl. Weight Watchers, I think that Americans way overestimate what a normal serving size is for some foods. In France, for instance, servings are smaller. And in looking up what the body needs for protein and healthy serving sizes of meats, it is really pretty small, compared to what the average American eats. But bear in mind that the average American is overweight.
The recommended serving of meat (chicken breast, ground meat burger without the bun, steak, etc.) is, I think, around 3 to 4 ounces? Something like that. For a woman, it'd be closer to the 3 ounce size.
I thought that too until I went back to France and could almost never clean my plate. One meal in particular stood out to me in Paris. I ordered a margherita pizza, no appetizer, no dessert. The pizzas there are served whole, one per person, and this one was about 12" in diameter. I tried, but I could not finish it. In the meantime, a petite French woman sitting a table away from me on the terrasse ordered and finished an appetizer, an entire pizza, and several scoops of ice cream. This happened over and over again, that I couldn't finish a main dish, much less an entree (appetizer) or a dessert.
I think the main difference is that the French almost never eat snack foods, except for kids' afterschool gouter. One of the unfortunate stereotypes they have of Americans is that we nibble all day. They think that is bad for your digestion and that you should empty your stomach between meals. I think they're right.
It's not that serving sizes are too small. It's that people's assumptions have increased because of "portion distortion." If you look at a hamburger, bagel, or other food item from 50 years ago, they were all smaller than their modern counterparts. That is a side effect of "supersizing" and "value meals." And that's why so many people are fat, because they have no idea what a true, USDA/food pyramid portion size really is---which, by the way, is how food is labeled. It's not marketing. It's policy. Food labeling is regulated.
I feel like "serving size" is a misnomer. It's not really meant to be the amount that someone would typically eat. It's really just establishing a basic unit with which to make the nutrition information usable for most people. As a diabetic, I appreciate knowing the carbs and fiber one slice of bread.
I've always interpreted "serving size" this way. It's not a *recommended* amount you should eat. They have to use some unit of food mass, and one slice of bread is something everyone understands. (Also, I often only eat one slice of toast. If I eat a sandwich, I am capable of multiplying by 2.)
From the website:
"Some serving sizes have changed on the new Nutrition Facts label. By law, serving sizes must be based on the amount of food people typically consume, rather than how much they should consume. Serving sizes have been updated to reflect the amount people typically eat and drink today. For example, based on the review of relevant information such as nationwide surveys of the amounts of foods Americans eat, the serving size for soda has changed from 8 ounces to 12 ounces. "
I love it when the Federales try to figure out what people consume. Sometimes they get it right, other times...
A quick perusal:
A can of chili and beans - serving size - one can.
A can of pork and beans the same size - 3.5 servings per can.
A tiny can of Vienna sausage - 2 servings.
Don't even get me started on candy servings. (Wanna share that box of candy with three other moviegoers?)
Sometimes I think the acronym might stand for something a little different - Federal Drugged A.... nevermind.
Point is - you know what your body needs. You know if you are overdoing. Don't depend upon some bureaucrat or processed food CEO to determine your consumption. A really basic concept is to ball your hand into a fist and (no, not that!) eat about that amount (of scrunched together food that excludes the air in it) during a meal. It roughly correlates to what a normal system can easily digest properly.
Forget about the sneaky downsizing what the heck serving size ONE slice of bread?
This is the basic formula that diabetics use for carb counting. Anyone can use this to keep their carb intake under control.
1 slice of bread (or any carb) = 15 grams (after subtracting the fiber) and should be about 80 calories. (It's on the food label and you need to do a little math.) Most people can tolerate three or four servings of carbs with each meal, so multiply everything by 3 or 4 and you'll maintain your weight.
Most people today don't have a freakin' clue and suffer from "portion distortion.". They try to recreate restaurant meals at home, which is a direct path to obesity. Hint: Restaurants intentionally overload your plate with carbs because they're cheap and they fill out the plate. That's how they stay profitable.
Here's an everday example: A Quarter Pounder and medium fries at McDonald's contains about 75% of the carbs you should eat for the whole day. --But only if you have a Diet Coke. You will blow it if you have a real sugar-laden Coke. Then people wonder why they get fat??
You can eat carbs and still lose weight, but it doesn't take very many carbs to survive. Carbs aren't necessarily evil, it's that the average person today has an unrealistic perception of what a "serving of carbs" should be. I'll bet the average American today eats about 3 or 4 times more carbs than the body was designed to handle. We've been trained to think this way by the restaurant industry.
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