The 600 calorie muffin

MiniCooperDeb
MiniCooperDeb Posts: 48 Member
in Food and Nutrition
What is wrong with our food industry? My husband brought home some banana nut muffins from Sam's Club today. Honestly, I am not making this up: the nutrition label says each muffin is 600 calories! Really? We can't do better than this? Guess I won't be eating any of them, or maybe just one bite and done. Somehow we need to get the message to those who are responsible for creating these horrors that we want something better for us. I have so many ideas...

I know that if we don't buy them, they won't make them. But when they are so inexpensive, it's an easy choice for the budge-conscious. I think we need to do more to get the message across. What are your ideas?
«134

Replies

  • RoyBeck
    RoyBeck Posts: 947 Member
    Yeah that's pretty crap! Shouldn't be allowed.
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
    What is wrong with our food industry? My husband brought home some banana nut muffins from Sam's Club today. Honestly, I am not making this up: the nutrition label says each muffin is 600 calories! Really? We can't do better than this? Guess I won't be eating any of them, or maybe just one bite and done. Somehow we need to get the message to those who are responsible for creating these horrors that we want something better for us. I have so many ideas...

    I know that if we don't buy them, they won't make them. But when they are so inexpensive, it's an easy choice for the budge-conscious. I think we need to do more to get the message across. What are your ideas?


    But please do rant, rave, stomp, shout, and spit curses at the wind because Sam's offers food that you don't approve of. For me, I'm thankful that I'm fit, healthy, slender, and living in a country where I have choices.
  • FarAway02
    FarAway02 Posts: 211
    Muffins are always super high... shop/cafe muffins come in at 400+ calories (normally nearer the 600 cal range).

    Solve the problem and bake some yourself...I do 150 calorie muffins packed with blueberries. Honestly I think they're more blueberry than muffin :p
  • michellechawner
    michellechawner Posts: 892
    What is wrong with our food industry? My husband brought home some banana nut muffins from Sam's Club today. Honestly, I am not making this up: the nutrition label says each muffin is 600 calories! Really? We can't do better than this? Guess I won't be eating any of them, or maybe just one bite and done. Somehow we need to get the message to those who are responsible for creating these horrors that we want something better for us. I have so many ideas...

    I know that if we don't buy them, they won't make them. But when they are so inexpensive, it's an easy choice for the budge-conscious. I think we need to do more to get the message across. What are your ideas?


    But please do rant, rave, stomp, shout, and spit curses at the wind because Sam's offers food that you don't approve of. For me, I'm thankful that I'm fit, healthy, slender, and living in a country where I have choices.

    Agreed - it's like saying a spoon made you fat. No, a spoon did not make you fat - YOU made yourself that way.

    This is America - it's freedom. Just because you can't eat the muffin, doesn't mean you can rant about how horrible it is.

    Eat your muffin and work out to burn half of it. Problem solved.
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
    Yeah that's pretty crap! Shouldn't be allowed.

    I use CostCo muffins to help maintain my weight.

    I'll blow out 1300 calories during my run tomorrow morning but, starting next week, I'll be running a minimum of 14 miles every Sunday so I will need to consume at least an additional 1700 calories. That's an awful lot of food for me to eat so I'm thinking there might be not one but two double chocolate chip muffins going down the hatch.
  • Punktorian
    Punktorian Posts: 224 Member
    Cut it in half, only 300 calories. Mathematics n' such.
  • nextrightthing
    nextrightthing Posts: 408 Member
    I totally agree with baking them from scratch. Besides the calories and fat grams check out how many ingredients are listed on that muffin package. Also for budegt conscious people you can't beat cooking from scratch. I loved what Jamie Oliver was promoting with his "Food Revolution". Did you see the episode he did on what is in chicken nuggets and then he made chicken nuggets from scratch that were delicious and nutritious. The shocking thing about that episode was the kids he was doing this demo with were still happy to eat the yucky McNuggets, it did not even bother them.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    10/10 would eat. Sounds yummy!
  • melindasuefritz
    melindasuefritz Posts: 3,509 Member
    OMG
  • nextrightthing
    nextrightthing Posts: 408 Member
    Yes do the math.... cut in half and have 300 calories..... but is it 300 calories that is going to leave you satisfied or craving more fat and sugar.
  • Trechechus
    Trechechus Posts: 2,819 Member
    Did you read the rest of the nutrition label, or just the calories?

    Also, no one is making you eat them. If you don't want a 600 calorie muffin, don't eat one.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Yeah that's pretty crap! Shouldn't be allowed.

    If you don't like it, don't eat it.

    Me? I'd eat it and love it. I'm making an ice cream pop tart sandwich for dessert after I have dinner. I also had about 2000 calories of dinner on Thursday. Maybe you don't think the restaurant should have been allowed to serve me so much food?
  • KReduced
    KReduced Posts: 98 Member
    [/quote]

    I use CostCo muffins to help maintain my weight.

    I'll blow out 1300 calories during my run tomorrow morning but, starting next week, I'll be running a minimum of 14 miles every Sunday so I will need to consume at least an additional 1700 calories. That's an awful lot of food for me to eat so I'm thinking there might be not one but two double chocolate chip muffins going down the hatch.
    [/quote]

    ^Ridiculously jealous of this guy. I keep trying to be a runner...:ohwell:
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
    What is wrong with our food industry? My husband brought home some banana nut muffins from Sam's Club today. Honestly, I am not making this up: the nutrition label says each muffin is 600 calories! Really? We can't do better than this? Guess I won't be eating any of them, or maybe just one bite and done. Somehow we need to get the message to those who are responsible for creating these horrors that we want something better for us. I have so many ideas...

    I know that if we don't buy them, they won't make them. But when they are so inexpensive, it's an easy choice for the budge-conscious. I think we need to do more to get the message across. What are your ideas?

    But please do rant, rave, stomp, shout, and spit curses at the wind because Sam's offers food that you don't approve of. For me, I'm thankful that I'm fit, healthy, slender, and living in a country where I have choices.

    Agreed - it's like saying a spoon made you fat. No, a spoon did not make you fat - YOU made yourself that way.

    This is America - it's freedom. Just because you can't eat the muffin, doesn't mean you can rant about how horrible it is.

    Eat your muffin and work out to burn half of it. Problem solved.

    I appreciate that you concur but I beg to differ with you in one respect - the OP is should definitely NOT be restricted form voicing her opinion.

    As I see it, she should be ENCOURAGED because rational discussion of ideas are vital to a democracy. And they're the lifeblood of a site like MFP - people exchanging ideas and information for the betterment of the whole.

    What is missing is any rationale for her stance. That may come in time but at least she's standing up and letting the world know what she thinks.

    I wonder if she shared her feelings with her husband? ;-)
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    I had an arguement with a friend one afternoon. She said she cooked her food fresh, and I said I didn't have time for that! She gave me 20 bux and made me go to the store for banana bread.

    By the time I got to the store and back, she had made the bread and it was coming hot and ready out of the oven.

    The taste was 10x better too!.

    She said the trick is to have the ingredients on hand for the things you love to cook. She DOES go to Costco, but for bulk products. I love to eat at her house.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    It is clearly stated on the label. I don't see a problem. You want lower calorie muffins? Buy them somewhere else, or make them. Or, as has been noted, cut it in half - they are pretty big.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    I read that OP was just SHOCKED at the calories. Part of the wonderful journey I have had on MFP is learning. The realization that the foods I was eating are not what I thought they were by reading the labels has helped me make better choices.
  • thatsbroscience
    thatsbroscience Posts: 25
    it isnt unhealthy because it has 600 calories
  • djkronyx
    djkronyx Posts: 77 Member
    For starters the food industry is a business...a business that wants to make MONEY. So these companies will take the cheapest and oftentimes the unhealthiest of ingredients to make something tasty and affordable. These products tend to appeal to the masses and money gets spent by us the consumers.

    Yes we know that buying healthy food is more expensive than a few cheeseburgers off of the dollar menu. At the end of the day it's all a choice. If you want to eat healthy, you're gonna have to sacrifice some other amenities in your life and direct that money towards buying wholesome foods. It would be nice if companies weren't allowed to make unhealthy foods. It would also be nice if tobacco companies didn't make cigarettes. . . .uh oh, I said it! :ohwell:
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
    Muffins are always so much higher in calories than I expect them to be,
  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
    Oh, I remember those giant muffins!!! My parents use to buy them when I was young. I don't know why I wasn't fatter! That + a couple of 250 cals croissants for breakfast and you blow up in no time!
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
    It is stunning how many calories can fit in some food, but as long as you know and understand, I don't think there's an issue.

    However, most people don't understand how few calories they burnt by virtuously walking wherever, so treat themselves to what they think they've deserved as an extra, calorie-wise. On mfp though, we're calorie savvy so can include what we like, depending on other health issues.
  • oregonzoo
    oregonzoo Posts: 4,251 Member
    yummmm so good!
    As long as it's labeled, who cares.

    You can fit it in, or you can't.
  • lisamarie1780
    lisamarie1780 Posts: 432 Member
    What is wrong with our food industry? My husband brought home some banana nut muffins from Sam's Club today. Honestly, I am not making this up: the nutrition label says each muffin is 600 calories! Really? We can't do better than this? Guess I won't be eating any of them, or maybe just one bite and done. Somehow we need to get the message to those who are responsible for creating these horrors that we want something better for us. I have so many ideas...

    I know that if we don't buy them, they won't make them. But when they are so inexpensive, it's an easy choice for the budge-conscious. I think we need to do more to get the message across. What are your ideas?

    bet it tastes good though :tongue:
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    And yet, by buying them...(or more accurately, by your husband buying them)...it is essentially a vote in favor of manufacturers and retailers making these foods available.
  • clairedrose
    clairedrose Posts: 121 Member
    My mother-in-law is well known in her family for dividing single serve items up for her whole family of herself, husband and 2 6' boys. It may have been cuz she is ahem, "thrifty", but neither boy became overweight or developed bad eating habits...unlike my family of the groaning board school of dining :)
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
    And yet, by buying them...(or more accurately, by your husband buying them)...it is essentially a vote in favor of manufacturers and retailers making these foods available.
    my husband loves muffins and will vote in their favor!

    He eats those Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chocolate-chip giant muffins. About 500 calories each with a weeks worth of sugar, I bet.
  • ncmedic201
    ncmedic201 Posts: 540 Member
    Some people can eat one of those muffins with no problems. My teenage son had one of those type muffins for breakfast this morning. It's not a big deal for him to eat 600 calories for breakfast. In fact, most days I have at least 500-700 calories for breakfast.

    If it is to much for you, cut it in half.
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
    I am fine with 400-500 calories at breakfast, but I need about 30 grams of protein.... NOT to be found in baked goods, sadly.
  • SAH1906
    SAH1906 Posts: 60 Member
    Check the label again...

    My kids and I saw some "600 Calorie Muffins" in Ingles. I had my daughter read the NUMBER OF SERVINGS. In a two muffin package that read 600 Calories PER SERVING there were SIX SERVINGS!. I started laughing so hard people were staring at me. We just put them down and I took the time to explain calories to my 8 year old.

Categories