Redefining Nutrition: How Food Structure Matters More than Serving Size for Your Health

Every time you open a bag of chips, do you pause to read the nutrition label? You might notice a little section that says "serving size." It's been on food packages since the 1990s, when the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) made it a requirement. But let's be real here, how often have you stopped eating your favorite snack after just one serving?

You see, serving sizes can be a helpful guide for creating menus or developing new food products, but in the real world, they often don't reflect how much we actually eat. Imagine you've just ordered a pizza. You're starving, and it smells delicious. Are you really going to stop after eating just one slice, the "serving size" suggested on the box? Probably not.

This is where we stumble into a problem. As consumers, we're put in a tight spot. When foods don't leave us feeling satisfied, or satiated as the scientists call it, we're likely to eat more—sometimes even the whole package!

So, what's the result of ignoring these serving sizes? Well, when our favorite foods are designed in a way that doesn't fill us up, we consume more calories than we need. This can lead to overconsumption, and over time, health problems like obesity and diabetes.

Now, this isn't about blaming anyone. It's about having an open conversation between consumers, experts, food manufacturers, and restaurants. It's about focusing on the structure of the food we eat—the ingredients and how they're put together. This can influence whether a food leads to weight gain (obesogenic), maintains our weight (normalizing), or even helps us lose weight (anorectic).

At KG Food Company, we've taken a different approach with our Energy Pods. We consider the entire pod as a serving size. Depending on your taste and hunger, you can eat a part of it or the whole thing. What's important is that, when you're free to eat as much as you want (also known as ad-lib food intake), the structure of the food makes a bigger difference in how much energy you consume compared to serving sizes or even the calorie count.

Think of it like this: Food is a bit like airplanes. They're both complex structures made up of different materials. Some airplanes (foods) are super speedy (they break down quickly in our bodies), while others are slower (they take longer to break down). Understanding this requires a bit of science, but at KG Food Company, we're all about that.

Our dream? To eventually build our own research facility to create better foods for a better future. A future where we eat not just for survival, but for enjoyment, for nourishment, and for the wellbeing of our bodies and our planet. So next time you reach for a snack, think about what you're really eating. Is it a speed plane that will leave you hungry soon after, or is it a slow plane, like our Energy Pods, that will keep you satisfied for longer?

It's time we looked beyond the nutrition label and considered the structure of our food. Because what we eat isn't just about calories or serving sizes—it's about quality, satisfaction, and ultimately, our health.