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Watch
portion sizes of packaged foods
December 11, 03
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
When
you open a bag of cookies or chips, what portion of the package
do you usually eat?
One quarter? Half?
How does that amount compare with the number of portions the
label says the package contains? Check next time, and you
might be surprised. The serving size listed on most food packages
often bears no resemblance to the amount we actually eat.
And it gets worse.
Multiply the number of calories per serving times the number
of servings you realistically would eat in one sitting.
For instance, let's say you've opened a package of Nabisco
Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies. How many would you eat?
Three? Five? More?
The label says one portion --three cookies --totals 160 calories.
And those are little cookies. I don't know about you, but
if I open a bag of Chips Ahoy!, I'm liable to eat more than
three.
And when I do, I'm getting far more than 160 calories.
That's
why it's so important --if you want to control your weight
--to scrutinize the portion and calorie information on the
labels of packaged foods. That's especially true for commercial
cookies, cakes, chips, crackers, candy and other snacks and
treats. It's very easy to eat a sizable amount, and it's just
as easy to overlook the number of calories you are downing
when you do.
Many of these foods have the appearance of a single-serving
food, but they're not. They've been supersized, and they deliver
double or triple the calories. Some examples: 20-ounce bottles
of soft drinks, bigger bags of chips, and the giant candy
bars being sold in convenience stores and gas stations.
The problem isn't confined to snack foods.
Many foods sold as entrees are also labeled with serving sizes
far smaller than what most people eat.
Frozen pizza is a good example.
A Freschetta 4-Cheese pizza contains five servings, according
to the package label. One-fifth of the pizza dishes out 390
calories, not to mention a hefty helping of saturated fat
and sodium.
Many people would cut that pizza into four slices and eat
two at a meal, particularly if they didn't round out the meal
with a big salad or side of vegetables. If so, then we're
talking 975 calories for pizza, not the 390 you may have planted
in your head from reading the nutrition facts label.
That's easily half the calories many people need in an entire
day, and then some.
Other steps you can take to keep calories from packaged foods
in check:
* Divide foods into single portions. Take one portion and
set the remainder aside. For example, cut one slice of coffee
cake and set it on a plate. Then close the box and put the
remainder away -- preferably out of sight to help you resist
the temptation to go back and chisel away at more.
* Buy small portions. If keeping 20-ounce bottles of Coke
around the house encourages you to drink the whole container,
buy the smaller, regular size instead. You'll drink less.
* Transfer food to a plate rather than eating from the container.
Sit with a box of crackers in your lap and there may be no
end until you reach the bottom of the box. Instead, define
your limit by setting aside only the amount you want to eat
in one sitting.
Of course, another option is to keep fewer packaged foods
around. Most are made with refined flour and added sugar,
making them dense with calories and light on fiber and nutrition.
Work to replace the packaged foods in your diet with unprocessed
foods in their natural state, such as apples, bananas and
oranges.
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