If you’ve only been checking out the bolded info on your favorite snack’s nutritional info label, you must read this.
For better or for worse, counting calories is the preferred method of many to watch what they eat. Thankfully, the handy Nutrition Facts Label found on most foods and beverages sold in the U.S. makes it pretty easy to do so—after all, the calorie amount is right there for you to see in big bold print.
It turns out, you might want to break out a pair of reading glasses to check out the fine print. Many of the “serving sizes” on those labels can be a bit misleading. Hint: If you’re eating the entire Ben & Jerry’s pint, you might want to sit down.
Author and Journalist Carrie Berk (@carrieberkk) just found out that the serving size on a product’s label can be a lot less than what the average cookie consumer would consider satisfying. And she took to her TikTok account to call out Crumbl Cookies for their standard.
Berk posted her video exposing Crumbl’s chintzy serving size yesterday and the video has already gained 161,000 views and counting as of Monday. In it, Berk is outraged to find out that the calorie count of a whole cookie is four times that of the suggested serving.
“Crumbl Cookies is a liar!” she announces to her viewers. She claims that a poster in a Crumbl Cookies store in New Jersey stated that the calories were between 180 and 220.
Berk was dubious but “split a cookie with my boyfriend,” anyway, she says.
“Now little did I know, if you read the fine print, apparently it’s 220 calories for one-quarter of a cookie,” she says. “Now these cookies aren’t that big. That’s literally a bite of the cookie. The entire cookie,” she notes indignantly, “is 880 calories.“
Sadly, Crumbl isn’t an outlier when it comes to dialing back on the serving size info. Ever eaten a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese on your own? Turns out that a 7.25-ounce box is a whopping three servings.
According to Eat This Not That, plenty of other brands have dubious serving sizes as well, including favorites like Ben & Jerry’s, Heinz Ketchup, and even packaged ramen noodles—a block of ramen is two “servings.” Who knew?
“There’s literally more calories in this cookie than in a Big Mac,” Berk points out.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Crumbl Cookies for a statement.
@carrieberkk EXPOSING CRUMBL COOKIES! 🚨‼️ #crumblcookies #exposed #foodie ♬ original sound – Carrie Berk
Several of Berk’s viewers were surprised she wasn’t aware of the dodgy practice.
“Did you just find out how serving sizes work?” asked one incredulous commenter.
Life_Unscripted2 (@user6068187812588) wrote, “Ma’am, that’s how serving sizes work.”
Other viewers commented that Crumbl’s cookies were fairly big and that the serving size didn’t seem unreasonable.
User fluffy pancake (@g0ldybb) wrote, “What? are we talking about the same Crumbl???? their cookies are huge what are u talking about.”
“I couldn’t eat a whole Crumbl cookie in one sitting if I wanted to,” another added.
One viewer commented, “I always cut the cookies into 4s. They are huge and really sweet. 1/4 is all I need girl!”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Berk via email for further comment.
