By Nate Widom
This article has been reviewed by Jeannie Versagli, RD, LDN. Jeannie is a Registered Dietitian with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a national professional organization, and is licensed in nutrition with the State of Delaware.
Since 1990, the FDA has required packaged foods to include a Nutrition Facts label.1 This requirement is intended to provide consumers with the necessary information – calories, protein content, fiber, etc. – to make healthy food choices for themselves and their families. However, misconceptions about serving sizes on nutrition labels may lead individuals to make poor choices with their diet.
Every nutrition label must display the serving size of the food it pertains to. A serving size is a standardized quantity of food, and the nutrition info given is based on that standardized amount. Serving sizes allow consumers to more easily evaluate the nutritional content of different items even when packaged in other volumes. For example, a standard box of Cheerios and a family-size box should have identical nutrients per serving even though they contain different amounts of cereal.
However, the serving size shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a recommendation for how much to eat. It is a reference based on how much of a given type of food people typically eat in one sitting.
The FDA designed serving sizes to provide nutrition info for the amount of food consumers actually consume. The first serving size guidelines were set in 1993 based on survey data on portion sizes from the 1970s and 1980s. And the average portions from those decades were often much smaller than today’s!
The amount of food we eat is obviously related to how hungry we feel. But studies have found that people tend to eat more when presented with larger food portions, too.2 And according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, portions have increased at restaurants and, most likely, in your home. The average bagel has doubled in diameter over the last 20 years, and the average burger has grown from 4.5 to 8 ounces.3 These steady increases have coincided with rising rates of obesity in the US.
Portion distortion is a big part of the issue – we’re predisposed to want to finish the food on our plates even if our hunger would be satisfied by less. So, even though today’s bagels are bigger and more calorically dense than the ones in the 80s, eating one may leave you feeling just as satiated. To our brains, a bagel is a bagel, no matter the size.
Serving sizes on nutrition labels have changed in recent years to reflect the new reality of eating. The serving sizes we see on products today are based on survey data collected between 2003 and 2008. In other words, as our consumption has increased, the serving sizes on nutrition labels have, too. For instance, the serving size for ice cream increased from 1/2 a cup to 2/3 of a cup. And when a food package was previously between one and two servings, the entire package must now be labeled as one serving in total. The structure of nutrition labels has also changed as recently as 2016.
Below are how some popular food serving sizes have changed since the 1980s, courtesy of Healthline.
| Portion in the 1980s | Portion in the 2020s | |
| Blueberry muffin | 1.5 ounces (210 calories) | 4 ounces (500 calories) |
| Bottle of soda | 6.5 ounces (85 calories) | 20 ounces (250 calories) |
| Spaghetti & meatballs | 1 cup of sauced pasta and 3 small meatballs (500 calories) | 2 cups of sauced pasta and 3 large meatballs (1,025 calories) |
| Chicken stir fry (from restaurant) | 2 cups (435 calories) | 4.5 cups (865 calories) |
| Grilled chicken Caesar salad | 1.5 cups (390 calories) | 3.5 cups (790 calories) |
Furthermore, fast food entrées increased by almost a half-ounce each decade, and desserts increased by ¼ cup each decade.2
So, what’s different about the new nutrition facts label?1,4
- Serving sizes for some foods have been updated
- Calories are now displayed more prominently on the label. Calories from fat, however, have been removed since it’s been determined that the ratio of fat an item contains is less significant than the types of fat you consume.
- Daily values have been updated.
- Added sugars, potassium, and vitamin D now appear on the label.
- Some products have multiple columns for nutrition. One column will contain nutritional information for one serving size and the other for the entire package.
- Vitamins A and C have been removed from the label since deficiencies in those nutrients are rare.
Learn more about how to read a nutrition facts label:
Image source: Food and Drug Administration
Knowledge is Power
Though the serving size of a food might not be the right portion size for you, it’s an excellent resource for making healthier food choices and can be a good place to start if your goal is portion control.
Let’s say you’re looking at a small bag of pretzels. You could quickly glance at the label and determine it’s a great snack due to its low caloric content per serving. You may also read it more carefully and notice its high sodium content. If you have the goal to lay off sodium, that extra care to read the label more carefully may prompt you to pick something better for your goals.
Ultimately, any food’s “proper” portion is relative and typically different from the serving size. Your personal goals will determine if you should eat the serving size, or less or more. And just because serving sizes aren’t serving recommendations doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use nutrition labels to make informed dietary decisions. Our bodies are different, so recommended levels for each may vary from person to person. Plus, there’s plenty of debate in the nutrition world about how much macro and micronutrients we really need. However, nutrition labels give you a baseline for determining what to eat and how much.
Daily Recommendation
| Calories | 2,000, but active individuals should consume more, and women should consume less than men. |
| Fats (includes monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, & saturated) | 78g, with saturated fat limited to 20g.5 |
| Carbohydrates (includes fiber, sugar, and added sugars) | 275g total. Fiber is set to 28g and added sugars at 50g, though it’s best to avoid added sugars altogether.5 |
| Protein | 50g, but those looking to gain muscle or lose weight should increase the amount.5 |
| Sodium | 2,300 mg.5 |
Portioning in a Pinch
Weighing your portions to calculate the nutritional value of what you eat is ideal, though not always practical. Use the guidelines below to help you determine how much you should eat.
Closed fist or baseball = 1 cup
Use for cut veggies, sliced fruit, cereal, cooked beans, pasta, rice, and French fries
3 baseballs = 3 cups of air-popped popcorn
A fingertip (tip to the first joint) = 1 teaspoon
Use for butter, spreads, mayonnaise, and jams
Palm of your hands or a deck of cards = 3 – 4 oz
Use for cooked meat, poultry, fish, or tofu
1 cupped handful = 2 oz
Use for dried fruit, pretzels, or shredded cheese.
A golf ball, or shot glass = 2 tablespoons
Use for nut/seed butter
Plus, Healthline has a guide for when you use a plate itself:6
- Keep vegetables or salad to a half a plate
- Keep your protein to a quarter of a plate
- Keep carbs, grains, and starches to a quarter of a plate
- High-fat foods on the plate should be half a tablespoon
Fun Fact: Restaurant serving sizes are typically 2.5 times larger than standard portions. If your goal is to eat less, consider taking half of your portion home when going out to eat!
References
- health.harvard.edu/blog/whats-new-with-the-nutrition-facts-label-2020022718948
- healthline.com/nutrition/portion-distortion
- nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/news-events/matte1.htm
- fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/food-serving-sizes-have-reality-check
- fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/daily-value-nutrition-and-supplement-facts-labels
- healthline.com/nutrition/portion-control
Sources used for graphic: Healthline, The American Cancer Society, Living Well
