We always get a kick when we read nutrition labels and discover how manufacturers trick us into believing their product is manna from heaven. A great example is tiny the serving sizes for foods of problematic nutritional value. By decreasing the portion size to 3 year old consumption standards, the calorie count in junk food seems decent.

In real life, most of us eat slightly more than toddlers, and therefore the serving sizes need to reflect true consumption. Here are some examples of bogus serving sizes from a recent trip to the supermarket. Please add your sighting in the comments section.

Campbell’s Chunky Fully Loaded soup. The 19 oz can boasts “When you’ve got extreme hunger, go for the black can.” Well, it should say go for half a black can, because there are 2 servings in there. While a single serving is only 300 calories, wolfing down a whole can will cost you 600 calories, 1860 mg of sodium (over 75% of your daily maximum), and 22 grams of sugar (over 5 teaspoons).

Oreo Cookies - 3 cookies per serving?

Oreo Cookies. A delicious American classic from Nabisco. Each serving is only 160 calories. An 18 oz package claims to house 15 servings of…3 cookies each. Name one person who stops at 3 Oreos. Now think about the number of cookies you consume while snacking. 6? 10? you’ve upped your to almost a qurater of your daily intake for what is basically sugar, oil, flour, and additives.

Honey Nut Cheerios. Another classic. If you’ve ever tried to measure a 3/4 cup serving size, you’d notice that is a smaller portion that what you normally consume. Go ahead, add 50% to the 110 calories and 9 grams of sugar you thought you were getting.

Tazo Giant Peach Tea. A 13.8 oz bottle seems just about the right size drink for a hot summer day. It’s 90 calories and 20(!) grams of sugar per serving, but you’d have to stop drinking halfway, because the bottle contains 2 servings. Everyone gulps down the entire bottle, so why mislead the consumer? By the way, the 40 grams of sugar in the bottle are the equivalent of 10 teaspoons!

Lays Classic Potato Chips - how many servings in a bag?

Lays Classic Potato Chips. An 11 oz bag boasts 11 servings, each with 10 grams of fat, 180mg of sodium, and clocking in at 150 calories. Lay’s defines a serving as 15 chips, but hey who’s counting. Many people polish off an entire bag with a friend or two. The real serving size is therefore at least twice as high. That works out to 300 calories and 20 grams of fat (a third of a day’s maximum).

We could go on and on, but you get the picture.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you are counting calories or sodium or whatever, make sure to insect the serving size listed on food packages to make sure they match your expectations. If not, you’ll have to calculate adjustments.

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The creative marketers at Nestle have been pushing various flavors of Juicy Juice liquid candy at parents for several years with great success. But it wasn’t enough.

Always under pressure to sell more and grow (hey it’s the American way!), they now present us with a new line of juice that will turn our tiny tots into little Einsteins. From the Washington Post Blog:

A big blue banner across the front of the package screams, “Brain Development,” while the smaller type just above the banner says, “DHA — A Building Block for”…

Imagine the eager moms and dads who’ll grab that Juicy Juice in hopes of making their kids just that much smarter. DHA, derived from fatty fish and other omega-3 fatty-acid-rich food sources, is indeed credited with promoting neurological health among babies, and it’s been added to many infant formulas for nearly a decade, though there’s no real science showing that DHA makes anyone smarter.

We decided to take a look under the hood… Read more…

Very healthy! Or at least that’s what new research, sponsored by ConAgra, has shown. Here’s the press release:

ConAgra Foods announced today new research that shows people who ate Healthy Choice(R) really did get healthier. Participants in the 24-week study, on average, lost 18 pounds – all as fat – trimmed their waistlines by about three inches, and lowered their cholesterol by 12 points. Leading cardiologist Dr. James Rippe, founder and director of the Rippe Lifestyle Institute, led the research team that conducted the study, which was presented during the 2009 Experimental Biology Conference April 18-22 in New Orleans, La.

get it all here…

Excuse us while we scratch our heads. How can The Rippe Institute conduct a truly objective study when it is being heftily paid by a company with a vested interest in a specific outcome?

Reading into the study, the people eating Helthy Choice got healthier because they were forced to excercise, eat only fruits, vegetables, lean meat and dairy, and whole grains. Oh, and one Healthy Choice meal once a day. How can the weight loss be attributed specifically to the frozen meal?

This press release is part of a huge rebranding of the Healthy Choice empire, including the introduction of new products, reformulation of some existing lines, and new packaging. ConAgra is estimated to be spending close to $100 million on this effort, including National TV Ads starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and web activities.

What you need to know:

While frozen dinners have made some headway over the past few years in terms of nutritional content, they still lag far behind home made food on several fronts:

1. high levels of salt – in the clip above, Julia Louis Dreyfus is stuffing herself silly with Sweet Asian Potstickers containing 600mg of sodium. That’s a quarter of the daily maximum value.

2. high levels of sugar – 19 grams or 4 teaspoonfuls. Hey, is this dessert?

3. too many ingredients* – here’s what’s inside the Sweet Asian Potstickers:

Vegetable Potstickers: (Filling [Cabbage, Vermicelli {Mung Bean, Water}, Baked Tofu (Tofu [Water, Whole Soybeans, Nigari], Tamari [Water, Soybeans, Salt, Alcohol, Wheat], Natural Flavors, Spices), Bulgur Wheat, Precooked Rice, Water Chestnuts, Green Beans, Onions, Carrots, Soy Sauce (Water, Wheat, Soybeans, Salt), Sesame Oil, Evaporated Cane Juice, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Spice], Wrapper [Wheat Flour, Water, Corn Starch, Soybean and/or Canola Oil]). Cooked Whole Grain Brown Rice, Water, Sugar, Carrots, Red Peppers, Sake, Rice Vinegar, Scallions, Corn Starch, Wheat, Soybeans, Spices, Sesame Oil, Garlic Puree, Salt, Locust Gum

To be fair, most of the list above is actually understandable, and there are no freaky additives or preservatives in this dish. So when the food scientists want to, they can dish out healthy fare…

* We could not find the ingredient information on the Healthy Choice website. The customer support group did reply promptly to our email, though.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you really really can’t prepare your own food, and must grab something from the Frozen Dinner Aisle, take a look at health brands such as Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine first. The brand does not automatically promise you’ll get a nutritious dish, but it improves the chances.

Proceed to check the ingredient list, scanning for unpronounceable chemicals, and then look at the sodium count. It should be in the neighborhood of  400-500mg or less. The sugar count should be lower than 12 grams. Usually the calorie count will be decent, because manufacturers know that’s the only number most people look at.

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