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The FDA wants to increase the serving sizes on most food product labels to reflect more realistic servings.  Their goal is to get more Americans eating a healthier diet.

We're taking a look at perspectives from the New York Times, Fooducate, Fox News and EmpowHer.

A New York Times contributor shows us why the current serving sizes might be inaccurate.

"The label says that a single serving of spaghetti is 1/8 of a package, that's two ounces.  So I measured out two ounces and cooked it up.  It's not the stinginess portion in the world, but it's a far cry from what a lot of people pile on their plate. And here's another oddity, the label on the spaghetti sauce says that a serving of sauce is a half of a cup.  So my one FDA sanction portion of Spaghetti is swimming in sauce.  Kind of makes you wonder if the sauce guy and the spaghetti guy talked with each other when they came up with the serving size." 

A blogger for Fooducate agrees.  He says that peoples eating habits don’t match up with the food labels anymore because the FDA’s serving sizes haven’t been updated.

“The actual quantity of product per serving is based on outdated consumer surveys, before the era of super-sized meals, big-gulp drinks, and a-pint-at-a-sitting ice creams… Many companies take advantage of this loophole to literally trick consumers into thinking they’ll be consuming less calories than what they actually do.”

But an analyst at FOX News brings an alternative perspective; she says be careful not to give people the wrong idea.

"If we increase the serving sizes, simply because people are eating more, they might think that the FDA is telling us it's OK to eat more, it's OK to eat this amount
of potato chips or whatever sitting in front of us, so I think that gives the wrong message."

And a writer with EmpowHER says up scaling the serving sizes to a more appropriate amount will allow people to eat healthier.

"Giving people accurate servings sizes and calories counts may convince them to go easy on foods like chips, ice cream, breakfast cereals and cookies."

If the FDA chooses to update the nutrition labels, do you think people will change their eating habits?

Writer: Tony Ullrich

Producer: Newsy Staff