Counting calories can drive you crazy, but it’s good to know how much you’re putting in your body. Women’s Health has a quiz where you choose which picture of food is 100 calories. It’s surprisingly hard to do!

US Eats More Processed Foods Than Fresh
In some ways our culture is more aware of portion sizes than ever, with 100 calorie packs etc. However, in the opposite direction, portion sizes are larger than ever. So we can figure out what a 100 calories of snacks looks like but not how much that is in real food.

There was a short article in the New York Times last week about the fact that the US eats 31 percent more packaged food than fresh food. Maybe that’s because people just want convenience foods on the go or they want to know the “exact” amount of calories they are putting in their mouth.

Are Serving Sizes Too Small?
But most people don’t eat the serving size that is listed on the package. Or the package itself is misleading, like a single portion of microwaveable Healthy Choice is actually two servings, according to another article by the New York Times.

The FDA is considering putting nutrition labels on the front of packages so consumers know exactly what they’re getting into. They are also considering changing the serving size to what people actually eat–which with chips could be two or three times that.

People should know exactly what they are eating and the harsh reality of how many calories that is. Hopefully that will help shock people into changing their habits.

The question is, will this just confuse people? Or worse, will people think that the government is saying that it is okay to eat this much?