The 600 calorie muffin

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  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,775 Member
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    There's nothing wrong with the food industry. The goal of the food industry is to sell more of their product and make more money. They deliberately take advantage of consumers' ignorance of nutrition and the general public's laziness and refusal to read those every-present food labels in order to do this. The food industry understands that consumers have very little will power and will forego their long-term health in order to fulfill their short-term taste impulses.

    The food industry is working fine and meeting it's goals.

    What's wrong with consumers today? Why are they refusing to read food labels and bringing home packs of 600 calorie muffins to their loved ones who are trying to be healthy and lose weight? Why are they eating food that doesn't contribute to their health and well-being? Why are they relying on the food industry to tell them what to eat and when to eat it?

    Why can't consumers make informed choices for their individual health and nutrition goals, especially with the wide variety of products provided by the food industry and the relative wealth and ability of First World consumers to buy healthy, nutritious food?

    I :heart: you
  • CoachReddy
    CoachReddy Posts: 3,949 Member
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    There's nothing wrong with the food industry. The goal of the food industry is to sell more of their product and make more money. They deliberately take advantage of consumers' ignorance of nutrition and the general public's laziness and refusal to read those every-present food labels in order to do this. The food industry understands that consumers have very little will power and will forego their long-term health in order to fulfill their short-term taste impulses.

    The food industry is working fine and meeting it's goals.

    What's wrong with consumers today? Why are they refusing to read food labels and bringing home packs of 600 calorie muffins to their loved ones who are trying to be healthy and lose weight? Why are they eating food that doesn't contribute to their health and well-being? Why are they relying on the food industry to tell them what to eat and when to eat it?

    Why can't consumers make informed choices for their individual health and nutrition goals, especially with the wide variety of products provided by the food industry and the relative wealth and ability of First World consumers to buy healthy, nutritious food?

    I :heart: you

    yeah i actually agree with this too. it's a shame they're not more altruistic, but... they're businesses, what do you expect? they appeal to demand.

    it's up to consumers to become educated and demand different products
  • gamerkiwi
    gamerkiwi Posts: 93 Member
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    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.

    Actually, you can rant about how horrible it is. This is America - it's freedom.
  • CAS185
    CAS185 Posts: 20
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    Cut it in half, only 300 calories. Mathematics n' such.

    Nice.
  • BarefootSerenity
    BarefootSerenity Posts: 100
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    Most food commercially made is crap. So sad. I make muffins/cupcakes weekly for family, friends and coworkers. I use full far, sugar, etc., and none of mine go over 200 cals.

    Having said that, although I don't agree with how things are done, this is true, as posted by someone else: "There's nothing wrong with the food industry. The goal of the food industry is to sell more of their product and make more money. They deliberately take advantage of consumers' ignorance of nutrition and the general public's laziness and refusal to read those every-present food labels in order to do this. The food industry understands that consumers have very little will power and will forego their long-term health in order to fulfill their short-term taste impulses."
  • Liz_Mfp
    Liz_Mfp Posts: 172 Member
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    I know that if we don't buy them, they won't make them.

    High margin items.

    The Food Industry is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing.
    Increasing profits so your-all's mutual fund performs better.
    :-)
    And they are sssoooo yummy, all that salt, sugar, and artificial this and that.
    Cheap to produce, high profit.

    But those store items are not "muffins" despite the label
    They are Turbo-Cake, extra HFCF, extra hydrogenated fats.

    Real Muffins are about the easiest thing to make at home, but they don't taste the same because they aren't the same
    :-)
  • Vivian06703188
    Vivian06703188 Posts: 310 Member
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    I agree with you to a point. If people stopped buying it they would stop selling it. That said, I think the they should have a responsibility to provide wholesome good food free of chemicals. Our food and drug administration has been bought out by big business and no one is watching out for the consumer anymore. The cola companies putting additives to make their products addictive is criminal and they are starting to do this with other food as well. Kids don't know and are not taught what is good or bad food so they eat it without ever realizing what is being done to their body. By the time they are an adult they are obese and every commercial on tv tells them to take a magic pill without teaching proper nutrition. It shouldn't be so hard to learn how to eat healthy. Someone sued the cigarette companies for providing a product that was dangerous to the public and won. I think it is time someone did the same thing to the food industry.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    I agree with you to a point. If people stopped buying it they would stop selling it. That said, I think the they should have a responsibility to provide wholesome good food free of chemicals. Our food and drug administration has been bought out by big business and no one is watching out for the consumer anymore. The cola companies putting additives to make their products addictive is criminal and they are starting to do this with other food as well. Kids don't know and are not taught what is good or bad food so they eat it without ever realizing what is being done to their body. By the time they are an adult they are obese and every commercial on tv tells them to take a magic pill without teaching proper nutrition. It shouldn't be so hard to learn how to eat healthy.

    Because governmental edict was never going to be the right answer.

    (That said, I'll leave all of your other conspiratorial comments without comment.)
  • Liz_Mfp
    Liz_Mfp Posts: 172 Member
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    baking them from scratch.
    how many ingredients are listed on that muffin package.
    Also for budget conscious people you can't beat cooking from scratch.

    I loved what Jamie Oliver was promoting with his "Food Revolution".
    episode ....what is in chicken nuggets

    +1

    :-)

    Good post OP.
    Reminds us to read labels
    Macro's
    as well as
    Each and Every Ingredient
    :-)
  • stardancer7
    stardancer7 Posts: 276 Member
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    The 'moral compass' of any business is profit. I try to keep the wallet closed and cook from scratch whenever possible--it's creative, it's far less expensive, I can control my own nutrition-per-penny and my blue box is less full from all the overpackaging. If there weren't so damn many deer walking my town I'd put my garden back in, too.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
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    Yeah that's pretty crap! Shouldn't be allowed.

    I hope that was sarcasm. Because I refuse to live in a country that bans food because people can't control themselves. Why should I not be allowed to eat a muffin because others have no self-control?

    Ha! Look around. It's already happening in so many ways.

    Guess you'd better start packing your things and figuring out where you're going to emigrate.

    I know. Scary, right?
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
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    There's nothing wrong with the food industry. The goal of the food industry is to sell more of their product and make more money. They deliberately take advantage of consumers' ignorance of nutrition and the general public's laziness and refusal to read those every-present food labels in order to do this. The food industry understands that consumers have very little will power and will forego their long-term health in order to fulfill their short-term taste impulses.

    The food industry is working fine and meeting it's goals.

    What's wrong with consumers today? Why are they refusing to read food labels and bringing home packs of 600 calorie muffins to their loved ones who are trying to be healthy and lose weight? Why are they eating food that doesn't contribute to their health and well-being? Why are they relying on the food industry to tell them what to eat and when to eat it?

    Why can't consumers make informed choices for their individual health and nutrition goals, especially with the wide variety of products provided by the food industry and the relative wealth and ability of First World consumers to buy healthy, nutritious food?

    Amen! :heart:
  • OhSnap779
    OhSnap779 Posts: 71 Member
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    I only eat muffins that I bake myself. 90-110 calories each, depending on what kind it is. It's much easier to stay on track if you are in control of what goes into your food. Besides being on the weight loss journey (so naturally wanting lower calorie foods), I also cook for my diabetic father and my daughter who has an allergy to tree nuts and some additive that we are not sure of, and I'm on a low sodium diet. It just makes sense for me to cook things at home, but it can be done and none of us feel like we are deprived of anything (unless my daughter decides she wants a cashew). Healthy is also doable on a budget, as long as you plan ahead.
  • bethlaf
    bethlaf Posts: 954 Member
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    I do not want someone (or the government) dictating my food choices for me. I am a grown up and free to make those choices on my own. That said my reading of the OP was not that she was seeking to ban the product, but rather her shock at reading the label because she is now living in a state of awareness that she did not previously live in. I have been very surprised at some of the calories in foods I used to eat without regard. When you think about the mindless calories we consume it is crazy.

    I also took away -- from the OP -- that there are people who assume because it is so packaged that the muffin in a serving. Although I suspect there would be few people who would think a muffin is a "healthy" food, I don't know that to me true. I think for many people it is a simple lack of awareness about food and nutrition.
    preach it grace!!
  • Andrea8985
    Andrea8985 Posts: 107
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    The 600 calorie muffins that you speak of are HUGE. As in, I'm a girl that loves to eat and I can *barely* finish one. Most of the time, I can't finish them. We often have them in the house because my husband likes to eat them for breakfast on weekday mornings. He's a big guy. 6'5" and 280lbs (more muscle than fat). I'm not going to tell him to not buy or eat those 600 calorie muffins because I don't want to eat them. He is free to eat them. Every once in awhile, I'll have half of one and give him the other half. Most of the time, I bake my own muffins and eat those.

    Don't like 600 calorie muffins? Don't eat 'em. I assure you my husband and others like him will eat them.
  • MyChange4Life
    MyChange4Life Posts: 19
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    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?

    There is nothing wrong with them making those muffins. They may not be good for you but someone like my husband is able to eat those just fine with no health nor weight problems. Buy muffins that are more suitable for you or make your own if you don't like what a company has to offer.
  • shannashannabobana
    shannashannabobana Posts: 625 Member
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    My breakfast was 600 calories and it was grits and homemade wheat biscuits!

    BISCUITS!!! Are my all time FAVORITE American food!!!!!!! When I visit America in August I'ma have biscuits for breakfast EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! So excited!
    This is someone I can appreciate! My grandmother made the best yeast biscuits and I can not make mine taste right. I'm afraid I would have to practice over and over again and I just can't do eat all that. Sigh.
    just like you, I went to college
    LOL, you know that wasn't a brag, right :)

    The other thing about those million calorie muffins is that they are the size of a small house. Kind of like cupcakes these days. When I was a kid we ate those homemade ones out of a small muffin tin with a flat smear of icing on the top and that was the perfect amount.

    I do make this pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe about once a year. I gave it to my nephews and they said 'yay cake'. So even 4 year olds have got that one worked out!

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