Serving Size Me

I had an interesting trip to the video store today (Hollywood Video). At the checkout counter, I saw, among other assorted food-like goods, individually sold pickles. You read that correctly - junk food Pickles-In-A-Pouch, full of brine.

I asked the clerk the obvious question of why she had pickles. In what bizarro scenario did someone think that a pickle could compliment the iconic bowl of buttered popcorn?

The clerk's response, while rolling her eyes, was that the chain was getting pressure to sell more healthy foods, and this was offered as an alternative to the Pop-Secret, Mountain Dew, and bagged cotton candy already on display.

Healthy, huh? I picked up the bagged pickle, which looked like something from my ninth grade bio class specimen room, and noticed that this one pickle contained 4 servings.

Really, Bagged Pickle Company of America. Someone is going to eat that over four sittings?

Which got me thinking...

How many of you drink a 20 oz. bottle of soda over multiple sittings?

How many of you eat a small bag of chips/pretzels over multiple settings?

How many of you would eat a normal sized candy bar over multiple settings?

I think I know the answer, and it's next to nobody. For small sized convenience food, we tend to eat the whole bag of chips (or pickle in this case) and drink the whole Coke along with it.

So, why do food and beverage companies insist on muddying up what a "serving size" is? Sure, maybe to the consumer who doesn't closely read the label may be shocked/awed by the actual amount of calories in what he is deciding to eat, and maybe this would be a disadvantage against competition. Shouldn't we be working towards more transparency in what we eat, as opposed to veiling nutritional value under the guise of small "serving sizes"?