Nine stupid serving-size tricks. (Food-Label Traps).

Millions of shoppers check the Nutrition Facts labels that are on just about every food package. But which numbers do they look at? Calories? Saturated fat? Sodium? If they don't zero in on the serving size first, no other numbers matter.

Despite--and sometimes because of--the Food and Drug Administration's efforts to clean up serving-size confusion, you can still get snookered into eating far more calories, sat fat, and sodium than you think. Here are a few examples of some typical traps.

1 SPLIT A BOX? If you think you're getting the 320 calories, seven grams of saturated fat, and 970 mg of sodium listed as one serving on the label, think again. Those numbers are for only two-thirds of each petite box.

Stouffer's is using the FDA's one-cup serving for "mixed dishes measurable with a cup"--things like spaghetti with sauce, chili, stir-frys, and casseroles. Expecting people to eat only one cup of a 1 1/2-cup box is a joke. But Stouffer's customers--who are getting 480 calories, 11 grams of sat fat, and 1,460 mg of sodium in each box--shouldn't be laughing.

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2 COUNT YOUR COOKIES. According to the Nutrition Facts labels, you get 160 calories in a serving of regular Chips Ahoy! but only 80 calories in a serving of Peanut Butter Chips Ahoy! That's because the serving size for the regular is three cookies (32 grams) while the serving size for the peanut butter is one cookie (15 grams). Why?

The FDA's serving for cookies is 30 grams, but cookies come in discrete units. If a "unit food" weighs at least half of the FDA's serving size--only the Peanut Butter Chips Ahoy! do--its label can use one unit as a serving. There you have it.

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3 SWISS IMPRECISION. "For Two Servings," says the small print on the front of the 14-ounce box. But the Nutrition Facts label on the back says that a serving is two tablespoons (one ounce), because that's the FDA's serving size for dips. So instead of 60 calories and three grams of sat fat in two tablespoons, eating half the box will give you 420 calories and 21 grams of sat fat (an entire day's worth). Oops.

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4 GET PERSONAL. Boboli packs "2 personal size crusts for pizza into each of these packages. But according to the Nutrition Facts label, a serving is half an eight-inch crust. Eat an entire crust and you get 400 calories, not the 200 calories listed on the label. (You also get 800 mg of sodium instead of 400 mg.) In Boboli's defense, half a crust (71 grams) is closest to the FDA's ridiculously small serving size for pizza crust (55 grams). In the FDA's defense ... we'll have to get back to you on that.

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5 A PIECE OF THE PIE. One glance at their Nutrition Facts labels and you'd think that a piece of Mrs. Smith's Boston Cream Pie had 80 fewer calories than a piece of her Lemon Meringue Pie (210 vs 290). But look closer. A serving of Lemon Meringue is listed as 1/8 of a pie (120 grams), while a serving of Boston Cream is listed as 1/10 of a pie (77 grams). What gives?

The FDA assigns a smaller serving to Boston cream pie because--like eclairs, cream puffs, and cupcakes--it's a "medium weight cake." Lemon meringue falls into the general "pie" category, which has a 125-gram serving.

Got that? Once you adjust the servings to, say, 1/10 of each pie, the difference in calories all but disappears.

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6 CUP WISE, OUNCE FOOLISH. The FDA's serving size for cooked pasta is one cup. (it takes two ounces of dry pasta to make that cup.) You might eat only one cup as a side order, but as a main dish? At a typical Italian restaurant, a serving of spaghetti with sauce is 3 1/2 cups, not one.

What's worse, few boxes mention how much cooked spaghetti you get from each two-ounce serving of dry pasta. So most people have no way of figuring out how many calories they're eating. If the 210 calories on the label jump to 420 (because you eat two cups) or 630 (because you eat three), you oughta know.

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7 SODA PLOT. It doesn't matter if you're drinking a soft drink, an iced tea, a fruit "drink," a lemonade, or a fruit juice. If you buy a standard, 20-ounce bottle, you're probably going to drink it by yourself. So what if the label says that a bottle contains 2 1/2 (eight-ounce) servings? You're still not going to share it with 1 1/2 other people. So instead of the 100 calories listed on the label, this Coke really has 250. Wonder how many people that's fooled.

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8 RAMEN FOR TWO? Like most soups, Maruchan Ramen Noodle uses the FDA's one-cup serving size, which is half a package. Are they kidding? If, like most people, you eat the entire package, you end up with 380 calories, eight grams of saturated fat (thanks to the hydrogenated oils in the noodles), and 1,780 mg of sodium. It's like eating a Quarter Pounder with half a teaspoon of salt sprinkled on top. Yum.

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9 DIVIDE BY PIE. It sure looks like a single serving, but according to the FDA (and the box), a serving of pot pie is one cup. So this baby serves two. Surely it would spoil a few appetites if the Nutrition Facts label had to list the 1,140 calories and 32 grams of saturated fat (1 1/2 days' worth) that's in each pie.

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