Saturday, December 1, 2012

Weekly Whine: Serving Size

I'm just wondering how people who make products determine serving size, because I seriously don't understand it.

I feel like anything that's individually wrapped ought to be ONE serving. Like if you buy a muffin, why is a serving size 1/2 muffin. Does anyone buy a muffin for the purpose of eating half a muffin??

And the other day, I was looking at a package of ramen, and one serving was half a package (yet still had like 100% of the day's salt allotment). How is that possible? A package of ramen is like nothing.

Basically, this is all a trick to make people think foods have less calories than they actually do.

8 comments:

  1. Actually, I eat half a muffin...

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  2. They can't make food with 200% of the daily allowed sodium content, but if they make it per serving, that's fine, even though nobody will only eat half a package or ramen, or 12 potato chips... It's ridiculous, you're right...

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  3. I remember being shocked at how small portions were in Europe and now that I think about it, they were actually 'a serving of chips' or of a muffin, not 3 servings per muffin.

    But if we shrank serving sizes, people would complain.

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    Replies
    1. But if we shrank serving sizes, people would shrink too. I see no problem.

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  4. I'm most irritated by the 376g bag of, say, candy, where one serving size is 24g and I cannot for the life of me do the math to figure out how much I'm actually consuming if I ate 150g. It's even better if you have a 12oz bag, but the calories are listed per grams or per quantity - and it's never an even number. Like 16 candies or 17 chips.

    In Europe, the standard is per 100g. It's so much easier than "half a cup or approximately 52.75g".

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  5. I'm most irritated by the 376g bag of, say, candy, where one serving size is 24g and I cannot for the life of me do the math to figure out how much I'm actually consuming if I ate 150g. It's even better if you have a 12oz bag, but the calories are listed per grams or per quantity - and it's never an even number. Like 16 candies or 17 chips.

    In Europe, the standard is per 100g. It's so much easier than "half a cup or approximately 52.75g".

    ReplyDelete
  6. Try cereal! no one eats 1/4 cup.

    ReplyDelete