Not a day goes by without me receiving numerous customer inquiries at my electronic postal account. Unfortunately, because I opted to pursue trapping as my primary school elective rather than typing, I’m not the swiftest keyboardist. However, I do my best to respond in a timely fashion. One of the most frequent questions I've been asked over the years is, "how much beef jerky is in a serving?"
Now, when I first emerged from the woods decades ago and began sharing my now iconic beef jerky with the world, I wasn't up-to-date on changes in dietary standards. You see, when I was alone in the wilderness, surviving on whatever sustenance I could muster, the only answer to the question, "how much beef jerky is in a serving" was, "all of it." After all, when you're lucky enough to have beef jerky in the wilderness, it isn't going to last forever.
Fortunately, we live in a land of plenty, which allows us to make informed choices about the foods we consume. With a little bit of coaching from my Old Trapper team and plenty of my own research, I've come to understand better the concept of a "serving size" and what that means for snacking. As always, I'm happy to share what I've learned.
Beef Jerky Nutrition Information
Way back in 1990, Congress passed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which required food producers to list standardized nutrition and ingredient information on all their packaging. Before that time, the contents of our food were essentially a mystery.
Today, if you turn a package over, you'll find a handy box listing everything you need to know about the nutritional makeup of your snacks. All this information is based on a standardized serving size, which you can locate near the top of the box.
So when you ask, "how much beef jerky is in a serving," you can simply consult the box to find out. Generally, a serving of beef jerky is 1 oz. or 28 grams. That means my 1/4 Lb. Big Bag contains four servings of beef jerky. Using the transitive property (I think), one can also deduce that my 10 oz. bags contain 10 servings.
Different products have different serving sizes. For example, the serving size for my individually wrapped Beef Stick is "1 Piece." So, make sure to check the nutrition label before you start snacking and grab as many pieces as you need.
How Much Beef Jerky is Too Much?
Of course, just because the serving size says "1 oz." doesn't mean you're only allowed to eat one ounce at a time. I imagine any beef jerky fan would find it difficult to turn a 1/4 Lb. Big Bag into a four-portion package. However, it's certainly not my place to make those decisions for you. I firmly believe that everyone should snack with their heart because beef jerky is one of the greatest foods ever invented. So, the true answer to the question, "how much beef jerky is in a serving," is "whatever amount you think is enough."
As with anything delicious, a subsequent question quickly emerges: "how much beef jerky is too much?" Again, I trust beef jerky fans implicitly and believe you have the ability to make informed decisions for yourselves. So, the answer to this question is always, "when you feel like you've had enough."
I Hope This Has Been Helpful
I always strive to be a helpful Old Trapper who freely shares the knowledge I've gained over my (many) decades of life. I certainly hope that this brief treatise on nutrition labels and suggested beef jerky serving sizes has been beneficial to you and yours. If not, feel free to reach out to me directly, and I'll do my best to answer more completely.
