Check the Nutrition Facts: Serving Size and Calories

The Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods is an excellent tool to help you balance your calories and maintain a healthy weight. It is important to check the serving size and consider the number of servings you will actually consume because it is easy to eat or drink much more than you realize. This can increase you daily calorie intake, and over time, your weight.   Let’s take a look at this food label for vanilla ice cream as an example.

You can use the Nutrition Facts label to answer the following questions:

1. What is the serving size? ½ cup of ice cream.
2. How many servings are in the container? 16 servings, or 8 cups of ice cream, in the container (16 servings x ½ cup serving size = 8 cups).
3. How many calories are in a single serving? 150 calories per ½ cup serving.
4. How many servings do you expect to eat? Let’s imagine we are deciding between eating 2, 3, or 4 servings.
5. How many calories are in the total amount you expect to eat? If we choose 2 servings, we will consume 300 calories; if 3 servings, 450 calories; and if 4 servings, 600 calories (150 calories/serving x number of servings).

As you can see, it is possible to glean a lot of information about a food product just by looking at the serving size and calories on the Nutrition Facts label. Most adults need to consume approximately 2000 calories per day to maintain a healthy body weight. Considering the ice cream example, 2 servings account for roughly 15% of your daily calories, while 4 servings account for 30% of your daily calories. The number of servings you choose impacts the number of calories you consume from ice cream and also the calories you have remaining for the day to stay within your 2000-calorie limit.

If you regularly consume over your daily calorie requirement, you will gain weight and possibly increase your risk for chronic disease, like diabetes and heart disease. Therefore, monitoring caloric intake and choosing nutrient dense foods is paramount to supporting your health. As a general rule of thumb for a 2000-calorie diet, in a single serving 40 calories is considered low, 100 calories is considered moderate, and 400 calories is considered high. When you consume a food that is high in calories, you can balance it by selecting other lower-calorie foods throughout the day to make sure you don’t exceed your daily limit.

Measuring serving sizes can be difficult when you don’t have measuring tools at your disposal. Here are a few helpful tips for estimating serving sizes using your hand:

• 1 cup = your fist
• 1 ounce of meat or cheese = the meaty part of your thumb
• 1 tablespoon = your thumb, minus the meaty part
• 1 teaspoon = the tip of your index finger
• 1 inch = the middle section of your index finger
• 1-2 ounces of food like nuts or pretzels = your cupped hand
• 3 ounces of meat, fish, of poultry = the palm of your hand

Dr Kara

My journey to find a balanced way of living led me to a Ph.D. in Nutrition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s in Public Health at the University of California-Berkeley. My studies and experiences afford me a deep understanding of diet and lifestyle factors that contribute to optimal health. I contribute to projects in the U.S. and abroad that improve the health of individuals and families through nutritious foods. I believe the foods we eat impact our lives in so many ways, ranging from nourishing our body’s cells and tissues, to supporting emotional, physical, and social wellbeing. I am thrilled to be a part of the Moxy Kitchen team and support the development of flavorful, easy-to-use food products that add a nutrient-dense punch to daily meals.