Serving Sizes
How come on a 12oz can of diet coke, the serving size is ‘one can’, which is 12oz, but on a 20 oz bottle of the same beverage, there are 2.5 servings per bottle, making the serving size 8 oz.?
———- from Jackie Klem of Arlington, VA
Over-careful reading of product labels qualifies as an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Serving sizes are smaller in the bottled version because people who buy bottles have smaller mouths. Australians have the largest mouths of any human, and that’s why their beer cans are so enormous. The more evolved creatures have smaller mouths, culminating in the wee little orifice of your average Irishman, a mere gash between his or her cheeks – just big enough to wedge a pint or two or three of something nourishing. So take a tip from the Australians and the Irish and ignore those labels on what you’re drinking.
Over-careful reading of product labels qualifies as an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Serving sizes are smaller in the bottled version because people who buy bottles have smaller mouths. Australians have the largest mouths of any human, and that’s why their beer cans are so enormous. The more evolved creatures have smaller mouths, culminating in the wee little orifice of your average Irishman, a mere gash between his or her cheeks – just big enough to wedge a pint or two or three of something nourishing. So take a tip from the Australians and the Irish and ignore those labels on what you’re drinking. 