Don't forget to check your food labels!

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Replies

  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Something funny I noticed today while buying cereal:
    The low sugar plain version of it had more calories and net carbs than the regular version with chocolate chips. Kinda made me chuckle a bit.
    The highest protein and fiber was the one with added nuts and brittle.
  • cronus70
    cronus70 Posts: 191 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    cronus70 wrote: »

    This looks tasty, by the way.

    It's fantastic, literally carrot and parsnip mashed with a touch of salt and nothing else. I eat the entire pack with a piece of fish and a large dollop of fat free cottage cheese
  • gramarye
    gramarye Posts: 586 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    gramarye wrote: »
    abatonfan wrote: »
    bohonomad wrote: »
    Never buy packaged foods unless you're gonna do a cheat, it's all crap! But I had to lol when they said no one would eat a bowl of chips.. they've clearly never been fat!

    What I have issues with are food companies manipulating serving sizes so that they can add certain labels to their food (like a muffin having 1.2g of trans fat and a company putting the serving size as "1/3 muffin" so that the trans fat per serving is 0.4g, can be rounded down to zero, and advertised as "0g trans fat -per serving in super tiny fine print-").

    This is mine. Less for the trans fat issue, but more because no one is eating a third of a muffin, guys. Especially when it's one item that you'd have to cut into thirds yourself. Every time I point these obviously-single-serving items out to my boyfriend (usually baked goods at the grocery store where our writer's group meets), we have a collective wince/laugh about it.

    But again, in the US this is likely because the gov't defines what a serving size of muffin is. Companies that make giant packaged muffins have to call them 2 or 3 servings, depending on the size. The "3 servings" is supposed to tell people that they shouldn't eat the whole muffin. While one can disagree with the strategy (I am neutral on it), it's not intended to trick people.

    Oh, I agree! I don't think it's malicious, but I do think it's unrealistic. In my experience (which is limited, of course) most people don't understand exactly how many calories is in their giant muffin, and don't recognize that their muffin is giant. It's just a muffin -- why wouldn't we eat the whole thing? That said, the latter is a more important issue; you could list it as one serving with it's 800 calories, and people would still eat the whole thing because we simply wouldn't think not to.

    (Also, personally, I just can't eat half a muffin. It's there. It's all jagged and stuff, and it drives me slightly bonkers not to finish it, lol.)
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
    At least with the Nutella lawsuit, I was able to make some quick cash. :wink:
  • CarolPre
    CarolPre Posts: 1,865 Member
    Reading labels is still not enough. I was having baked sweet potato fries once and was going by the serving size (not the weight) and calories on the label, which I thought was a lot of fries for the amount of calories. The next time I fixed them, I weight out the 3 ounces and it was only about half of the amount listed on the label. I try to weight as much of my food now as possible.
  • snowflake930
    snowflake930 Posts: 2,188 Member
    CarolPre wrote: »
    Reading labels is still not enough. I was having baked sweet potato fries once and was going by the serving size (not the weight) and calories on the label, which I thought was a lot of fries for the amount of calories. The next time I fixed them, I weight out the 3 ounces and it was only about half of the amount listed on the label. I try to weight as much of my food now as possible.

    JW, what did the package say the serving size was versus the actual weight of a serving size.
    I imagine there could be quite a difference as the pieces vary so much in size, if they are claiming, lets say 20 fries per serving. I am wondering what a serving size is. I make oven baked sweet potato fries from fresh sweet potatoes.

  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    juggernaut1974 wrote: »
    Good rule of thumb...random YouTube videos aren't great sources of accurate information.

    And I'm not spending 22 minutes watching a poorly researched piece of propaganda. Can you summarize for us?

    Labels use words that sound good but aren't regulated. So, they mean nothing. Shocker.
  • CarolPre
    CarolPre Posts: 1,865 Member
    snowflake930 wrote: »
    CarolPre wrote: »
    Reading labels is still not enough. I was having baked sweet potato fries once and was going by the serving size (not the weight) and calories on the label, which I thought was a lot of fries for the amount of calories. The next time I fixed them, I weight out the 3 ounces and it was only about half of the amount listed on the label. I try to weight as much of my food now as possible.

    JW, what did the package say the serving size was versus the actual weight of a serving size.
    I imagine there could be quite a difference as the pieces vary so much in size, if they are claiming, lets say 20 fries per serving. I am wondering what a serving size is. I make oven baked sweet potato fries from fresh sweet potatoes.

    I'm sorry I can't remember the number and I don't have any in my freezer right now to check, but it was the Oreida brand.

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