Lauren
If you’re anything like me, after a long day at work, you probably need a snack to tie you over until dinner.
Imagine working a full eight-hour day, rushing home, grabbing a plate out of your cupboard, and enjoying two delicious crackers. Think about how satisfying it would be to cook half a package of flavorful ramen noodles. For those of you who have a sweet-tooth, picture your joy after you grab three Oreo cookies for an unforgettable dessert fix.
Sound great? Probably not.
Chances are you are going to want a little bit more to eat than these tiny portions.
However, as crazy as these portions might seem, these are actually the recommended serving sizes for these foods.
While these recommended serving sizes might appear to be some strange oversight, they are actually quite intentional. Companies often recommend serving sizes that are a lot smaller than the amount of food that people typically consume because it increases the likelihood that people will buy their product.
This is for two main reasons:
1. Packaging
The amount of food people decide to eat typically has more to do with the packaging than the serving size of a product. If a certain company’s sweet tea is sold in a 20 oz bottle, individuals who buy it are likely to consider the entire 20 oz bottle to be a serving. If an individually wrapped graham cracker package comes with two graham crackers, most people who purchase them are going to assume that both crackers make up one serving.
Companies rely on this tendency and recommend small serving sizes in order to make their products seem healthier. When people take a quick glance at the package or container of food that they are about to eat or drink, chances are they will assume the nutritional information on the back refers to the entire package. This will make the nutritional information seem better than it actually is.
For instance, if you have a 20 oz bottle of juice, you might assume that there are only 120 calories in the entire bottle. However, if you look closely at the label you’ll notice that the serving size is only ⅓ of the bottle, which means that the entire bottle is actually 360 calories.
Companies bank on consumers making this mistake because they know that consumers may be less inclined to buy a product if they think it has more calories, sugar, or fat.
2. Portions
Companies benefit from recommending small serving sizes even with products where consumers know there are multiple servings in each package. This is because they can show nutritional information that looks better and healthier than if they were to show the information that is a reflection of what their customers will actually eat.
Take Oreo cookies, for instance, which have a serving size of three cookies. Nabisco knows that even though the average person will eat more than three cookies in a sitting, the nutrition facts for six or seven cookies will be far less appealing for customers than the nutritional information for three.
Companies know that if their nutrition facts reflect the realistic amount that their customers consume, people will be less likely to buy their product.
The next time you grab a bag of your favorite candy or you pick up a soft drink at the grocery store, make sure you check the serving size. As long as you are cognizant of this “trick” when you are purchasing and eating food, you’ll be just fine!
