Another interesting example of why we need food scales

Someonegreat37

I love ice cream and usually save room to have some most days. Yesterday I had two kinds in the freezer: Breyers and Ben & Jerry's fro yo. When I went to measure my servings, I noticed the following discrepancy in each brand's definition of a "half cup" serving: (Breyers left, b&j right)





Let's just say I know which kind I'll be buying more of in the future This is the kind of thing I never would have noticed before MFP and before using my food scale. Thanks, MFP!

sofaking6

Ha! That reminds me of when my sister-in-law taught me to look at the price per unit because a lot of times the bulk packages are actually a worse deal.

yopeeps025

Wow look at that sugar difference. You're right though.

lemonsnowdrop

yopeeps025 wrote: »

Wow look at that sugar difference. You're right though.

The difference in the sugar is because the serving size is almost doubled. Look at the gram servings of each.

girlviernes

Good observation!

peter56765

What's the discrepancy? One is denser than the other. That's to be expected for any two foods.

Jruzer

peter56765 wrote: »

What's the discrepancy? One is denser than the other. That's to be expected for any two foods.

Exactly this. If you want more volume eat ice cream that is less dense.

FWIW, I find the food scale to be invaluable with ice cream because you don't have to worry about voids, leveling off the top, etc.

Rogstar

I was gonna say, there's no real discrepancy here. Ben and Jerry's uses much more dense ingredients in their products. I feel that it's a better deal because of the quality (but often no one else in the house likes the kinds that I like so I get it all to myself!)

Even if they made plain chocolate, if you compared their product to another discount brand's (Breyers, Edy's, Blue Bunny, store brand), you would see a huge difference between weight per serving. But, that's why I much prefer Ben & Jerry's: I'm satisfied with only ~1/4 container, while another brand I would be adding more scoops. Even better, gelato. Super dense, and oh so satisfying. Sometimes after only a couple spoonfuls.

You are right though, weighing is important. Even if their carton says that 1/2 cup is 98g, you would still probably find that your 1/2cup is going to be different every time. Once it would be 89g, another time it might be 120g depending on what your scoop actually contains.

Phish food is waiting for me at home....

whmscll

This was really eye-opening for me. Thought a half-cup was a half-cup!

kshama2001

Seconding Rogstar's comment about quality ice cream. I don't care that B&J has way more fat grams than other brands. If I'm going to eat ice cream, I want GOOD ice cream. I just wish they had more variety in their mini cups.

Good post OP - that was interesting about the weight differences.

Need2Exerc1se

I don't understand how the picture backs up the subject line. This seems more of a reason why it's good to read labels. Did you weigh them and the weight did not match the label?

TimothyFish

peter56765 wrote: »

What's the discrepancy? One is denser than the other. That's to be expected for any two foods.

That's what I'm wondering too. Since it is two different kinds of ice cream, we would expect there to be a difference in weight per half cup. You can use a scale to tell you how much of a serving you have, and you may find that your half-cup measure weighs more or less than is listed, but if we have a half-cup measure that yields 57g for the first, we would expect that same measure would yield 98g for the second.

lemurcat12

That's why I have never been that impressed with the low calorie Breyers ice creams. They are whipped up so that basically you get a smaller amount in a half cup serving. (That would be the case if you actually used the measuring cup, but measuring ice cream with a measuring cup seems much more difficult than weighing and obviously will vary depending on how soft you let it get.)

I noticed this the first and only time I bought one, when I went to weigh out my serving. It would have been more impressive if I'd noticed on the package.

Talenti's half cups are normally about 100 g or a bit more for around 200 calories--they end up as low cal as the Breyers for comparable amounts.

quiksylver296

Rogstar wrote: »

I was gonna say, there's no real discrepancy here. Ben and Jerry's uses much more dense ingredients in their products. I feel that it's a better deal because of the quality (but often no one else in the house likes the kinds that I like so I get it all to myself!)

Even if they made plain chocolate, if you compared their product to another discount brand's (Breyers, Edy's, Blue Bunny, store brand), you would see a huge difference between weight per serving. But, that's why I much prefer Ben & Jerry's: I'm satisfied with only ~1/4 container, while another brand I would be adding more scoops. Even better, gelato. Super dense, and oh so satisfying. Sometimes after only a couple spoonfuls.

You are right though, weighing is important. Even if their carton says that 1/2 cup is 98g, you would still probably find that your 1/2cup is going to be different every time. Once it would be 89g, another time it might be 120g depending on what your scoop actually contains.

Phish food is waiting for me at home....

The Tonight Dough is pretty amazing. Even 57 grams is enough, because it's so rich.

Coolhandkid

I actually had a good friend that worked at Breyers HQ a few years ago. They shrank half gallon (64oz) to 56oz and added more "whip". Essentially all it did was add air to the cream so it wasn't as dense. The container looked the same, fewer calories, etc. But it was decidedly just a way for them to make more money. Less cream, sugar, etc. More air. This is happening all over the place.

Lourdesong

galbracj wrote: »

I actually had a good friend that worked at Breyers HQ a few years ago. They shrank half gallon (64oz) to 56oz and added more "whip". Essentially all it did was add air to the cream so it wasn't as dense. The container looked the same, fewer calories, etc. But it was decidedly just a way for them to make more money. Less cream, sugar, etc. More air. This is happening all over the place.

There was a british doc posted a while back about calories and the science of weight loss (apologies that I don't recall the title, it was a while ago) but the host talked about how companies/restaurants can reduce calories and give smaller portions just by presenting the food differently (eg whipping more air into full fat cream, etc).
His argument was favoring people keeping their delicious food and that deceptively large portions of the food people love is a superior strategy than pushing diet food that sacrifices taste.

Pretty much gave businesses a noble reason for what they'd probably want to do anyway to increase profits .

sbtnicky

You're comparing two completely different things. Cups are a unit of volume, they measure how much of something will fit into a three dimensional space. Grams are a unit of mass, for these purposes they estimate how much that volume of something will weigh. (It's more complicated than that because weight and mass aren't the same thing, but for this particular situation the distinction isn't all that important.) If you do better with visual explanations, there are a bunch of videos on YouTube. Just search something along the lines of 'mass vs volume'.

SLLRunner

Someonegreat37 wrote: »

I love ice cream and usually save room to have some most days. Yesterday I had two kinds in the freezer: Breyers and Ben & Jerry's fro yo. When I went to measure my servings, I noticed the following discrepancy in each brand's definition of a "half cup" serving: (Breyers left, b&j right)





Let's just say I know which kind I'll be buying more of in the future This is the kind of thing I never would have noticed before MFP and before using my food scale. Thanks, MFP!

Why not buy both and eat them in moderation?

SLLRunner

peter56765 wrote: »

What's the discrepancy? One is denser than the other. That's to be expected for any two foods.

This too.

I don't care, though--I save room in my calorie goals a few times a week for that wonderful ice cream, and I have 2 or 3 flavors of lactose free in the freezer.

seska422

I think it's also a good example of why we need to be careful when we choose food diary items from the database.

Just choosing a generic "ice cream - 1/2 cup" entry won't work because the values can vary wildly.

It's important to use the correct brand and flavor of items and then double-check the entries against the nutritional info on the package.

minties82

Wow! You have "calories from fat" at the top. We don't have that on food lables here. Also no percentage for sugar...eh? Is sugar some sort of free for all there? Really interesting.

atypicalsmith

whmscll wrote: »

This was really eye-opening for me. Thought a half-cup was a half-cup!

Think whipping cream - meringue - they all fluff up from their original ingredient. Half a cup of heavy cream and half a cup of egg white does NOT equal half a cup of whipping cream or meringue!

seska422

minties82 wrote: »

Wow! You have "calories from fat" at the top. We don't have that on food lables here. Also no percentage for sugar...eh? Is sugar some sort of free for all there? Really interesting.

An upcoming change is going to put "Added Sugars" on the nutrition label but it still won't have a percentage because there's no Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) for sugar or added sugar.

azulvioleta6

minties82 wrote: »

Wow! You have "calories from fat" at the top. We don't have that on food lables here. Also no percentage for sugar...eh? Is sugar some sort of free for all there? Really interesting.

In the United States? Ha ha...yes.

Great observation OP--but I think that these kinds of things are bigger pitfalls if you are eating a lot of processed foods. There is a lot less danger in not weighing everything if you are mostly eating whole foods.