Why is serving size important?

One very important thing to keep in mind is that all serving sizes are not created equal. This can be very significant for those of us that are calorie conscious. Most food packaging contains nutritional data on the back or side of the product. When looking at the packages, be sure to pay close attention to the serving size. One vending machine contained a Reeses Peanut Butter Cookie that reported it contained 225 calories per serving. Closer inspection of the nutrional information revealed that the serving size was 1/2 of a cookie. Anyone daring enough to eat the entire cookie would consume a massive 500 calories with just one snack.The cookie is just one example of many. Even many bottled waters are following this trend. A very popular bottled water product claimed a meager 50 calories per serving. That seemed a little steep for water, but not so bad compared to other drink products. Until, once again, you look at the serving size. Each bottle of this particular water was considered to be 2.5 servings. So if you consume the entire bottle, you swallow 125 calories. The lesson here to remember, always look at the serving size of the product before you consume it. This way, if you choose to forego calorie counting and indulge, you can do so conservatively. No point in waisting your indulgence on water!