Question

The label on the box of breakfast cereal lists one serving as containing 200 calories per serving. How many calories are actually in one serving?

A) 20
B) 2,000
C) 20,000 D) 200,000 E) 2,000,000

Answer 1

One serving of breakfast cereal contains 200 calories, where 'calories' refers to kilocalories. No multiplication is needed, and the answer from the options provided is D) 200 calories.

Step-by-step explanation:

The number of calories in one serving of the breakfast cereal is specifically pointed out on the label, which indicates that there are 200 calories per serving. A calorie as mentioned on food labels is actually a kilocalorie (kcal); this means that when we talk about the calorie content of foods, we are discussing kilocalories. Hence, a serving containing 200 calories is providing 200 kilocalories of energy.

To put it in context, a regular diet may consist of about 2,000 calories (kcal) daily, which translates to 2,000,000 small calories, or over 8,000,000 joules of energy. To clarify any confusion, while we often use the term 'calories' colloquially when referring to food energy, the correct term for these units as written on food labels should be Calories, with a capital 'C', or kilocalories. Therefore, it's important to note that the 200 'calories' on a food label do not need to be multiplied by any factor; they already represent the total energy provided in one serving of the cereal.