What Is a Serving?
Now, there is another rather sneaky aspect of nutrition labels. In the old days, when you were still drinking such things, you may have purchased a twenty-ounce bottle of flavored ice tea sweetened with corn syrup. That ' s one serving, right? Wrong! Look carefully at the Nutrition Facts panel and you will see that a single serving is calculated not as the twenty ounces in the bottle but as eight ounces. You are expected to share that bottle with another friend and a half! That means all those calculations about carbohydrate content, sugar content and calories are for only eight ounces, not the whole bottle.
So, whenever you check a label to make sure you are not going over your daily carb count, double-check the serving size as well. And if you are planning to have more than what is considered one serving, multiply the adjusted carb count by the appropriate number of servings.
Here is what you should be aware of on a nutrition label:
Serving size. If you have more than one serving, be sure to add in the carbs. Total carbohydrates expressed in grams. Amount of dietary fiber expressed in grams( subtract from the total number of carbohydrate grams to get " the carbs that count when you do Atkins "). Sugar expressed in grams.
Full Disclosure
At my food products company we try diligently to provide consumers with all the information they need to do Atkins. I believe you will benefit tremendously from the understanding about carbohydrates you have gained by reading this book. I would like to see all product manufacturers be required to present the important carbohydrate information right on the Nutrition Facts panel.
Let me give you an example of how it would work:
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