Food and Health Communications

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One Ounce

Mini snack cookies

Many processed chips, cookies, bars and dessert type items indicate a one ounce serving size on their Nutrition Facts Panel. I find this to be very telling about the calorie density of packaged foods.

Here are the calories in various fruits and vegetables, per one ounce:

Apple - 14 calories
Baked potato (plain) - 26 calories
Carrot - 11 calories
Celery - 4 calories
Grapes - 19 calories
Melon - 9 calories

Whereas most cookies and potato chips are between 140 to 160 calories per ounce (28 grams), even if they are baked, fat-free, whole grain or trans-fat free! This clearly shows that fruits and veggies are the way to go for snacks for those watching their waist.

Our cookie package says:
-Mini size
-Handy snack sack

We wonder if most would treat this bag as a one-serving snack and not realize how many calories they have consumed? 9 small cookies (1 ounce) is a small serving for 130 calories and the bag makes it tempting to keep eating more –That is 1040 calories for the bag!!!!!!!! We would tend to think of these more as a treat not a snack.

Flip over the bag and check the Nutrition Facts Panel - which we have summarized here:

Food and Health Communications has just produced a new game called Nutrition Facts Label Game

It is great for teaching people the difference between package claims and the Nutrition Facts Panel as well as being able to evaluate foods and make better choices in the grocery store.

We have opened the comments section of this blog - if you are reading tell us hi and what you think. We welcome food and cooking questions, too!