How much cereal did you have for breakfast? Was it a cup, or was it more like 2 ½ cups? The label on the box tells you that one cup has 200 calories, but if you had two and a half times this amount, your breakfast had 500 calories, not 200. Labels use standard serving sizes, but this doesn’t mean it is the serving size you typically eat. For example, the label on the large bag of chips you buy to snack on during the Monday night football game says that a serving is one ounce or about 15 chips, but do you count the chips you eat while sitting in front of the TV? Fifteen chips is only a handful and will likely be gone before the first quarter ends. It may be helpful to occasionally weigh or measure out a serving to see how much it looks like on your plate or in your bowl or glass.
Another thing to watch is the number of servings in the container. Food manufacturers are required to follow standard serving size guidelines on the label, but they are not required to package products according to these standards. For example, the sports drink you guzzle after working out says a serving has only 100 calories – certainly not enough to replace all the calories you just burned off at the gym. Look again. The serving size is 8 ounces, but the bottle contains 20 ounces. If you drink the whole bottle, you will be adding 250 calories to your diet, mostly as added sugars. This is enough to replace the calories you would burn by jogging for about half an hour. People tend to eat in units: one doughnut, one packet, and one bottle. You are unlikely to drink 8 ounces from the 20-ounce bottle and save the other 12 ounces for later.
Other serving sizes may be confusing because they tell you the serving that comes out of the box, not the serving that goes on your plate. For example, the serving size on a box of pasta is 2 ounces of dry pasta. What does 2 ounces of dry pasta look like once it is cooked? It turns out it is about a cup, but you can’t tell this from reading the label. Some labels, such as the one shown here from falafel, do provide information on both the food as it comes out of the box and after it is prepared. This information can be helpful if you prepare the food according to package directions.
Food labels are helpful tool in choosing foods to build a healthy diet if you use the information they provide.
