LIVE ON BBC BREAKFAST discussing the issue with ‘serving sizes’ on packaged foods. Here are some of my thoughts:
A big issue that I see in clinic is people glancing at the nutritional label on the front showing what one serving provides in terms of calories, fat, sugar and salt, but actually eating double or triple this because the serving size is unrealistically small, for example when you look at chocolates (who eats only 2-3!). This could lead to unintentional overconsumption, which can impact overall health and weight management.
Serving size suggestions (in my opinion) need to be used as a guide only, because they are in essence made up by the food manufacturer and they do not take into account what else you are having with the meal or what you’re having during the rest of the day.
They are also in most cases based on an average women, which although may work on a population basis, don’t work on an individual level because we are all unique in our build, metabolism and activity levels.
EXAMPLES of foods showing some of the inconsistency across different pack sizes of the exact same product - it’s so confusing:
Crisp Serving Sizes - 25g (in a multipack) or 45g (grab bag) - which both count as one portion. A 150g sharing bag, meanwhile, suggests a portion is 30g (is this to make the product look healthier that it is on the front of the pack?!).
Chocolate - Multipack bar 27.2g (1 serving), 33.5g bar (1 serving), 110g bar (serving is 6 chunks = 27.5g), 180g bar (serving is 4 chunks = 20g), 360g bar (serving is 5 chunks = 30g).
Nutrition labelling is indeed valuable, but it must be based on meaningful and consistent portion sizes. This is an area where the food industry can make significant improvements to support public health.
For more information check out ‪@which‬ and to see the full clip (this is just an extract) check out my KZfaq channel (search for Nic’s Nutrition on KZfaq!). Thank you BBC Breakfast for having me on.
#bbcbreakfast #mediadietitian