Do you pay attention to the recommended portion or serving sizes on food or drink? I’m wondering just how suitable a lot of them really are.
In lockdown, like many other people, I’ve been eating all my meals at home. As a family, we’ve been cooking more from scratch, trying new recipes and also buying food that we usually wouldn’t.
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We’ve probably eaten more biscuits and snacks than we usually would, allowing ourselves a few more ‘treats’ than usual to counteract the boredom of not going out and the misery of the news.
As a result I’ve been paying more attention to food packaging and have been surprised at the portion sizes manufacturers recommend.
Unrealistic serving numbers
Last week I added a quiche to the shopping basket for a quick and easy work day lunch but was surprised to find that a 400g quiche, that’s around 20cm in diameter, was meant to serve four people.
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Served with a salad on the side, unsurprisingly I wasn’t satiated after this lunch and spent the afternoon snacking. Next time I’ll serve a bigger portion or have it with a small baked potato.
This got me thinking about other unrealistic portion sizes. This morning after my 10 year old poured his bowl of cereal I weighed the contents.
The recommended portion size is 40g but he served himself 91g and then topped it with granola.
My husband’s serving was 90g, the recommended portion is 40g!
Made to be ignored?
I should point out that neither my husband nor son is overweight so who really is eating the measly 40g recommended?
I then looked at juice. Many juices come in 1 litre bottles or cartons but a recommended serving is 150ml. This means a 1 litre container contains 6.33 servings?
What is meant to happen to the 0.33 of a serving? Or do manufacturers expect you to ignore the recommended servings and just pour yourself a glass?
Do you follow recommended portion and serving sizes? Have you spotted any completely unrealistic ones?
Share your examples in the comments.