Argh. Misleading nutritional labels:

Freidon
Freidon Posts: 169 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I try not to trust nutritional labels, particularly when dealing with fast food, but nothing makes me angrier than misleading serving sizes.

Case A: McDonald's. My boyfriend mentioned grabbing something to eat at McDonald's tonight, so I decided to look up nutritional info online beforehand. Grilled chicken sandwich, minus mayo? Check. Fries? Nope. So I decided to substitute a yogurt parfait instead. 300 calorie sandwich and a 150 calorie yogurt doesn't sound too bad, compared to the alternatives, right? I've eaten the yogurt parfaits all the time, they're absolutely delicious.

Only, they're not "just" 150 calories like I thought. McDonald's website lists them as being 150 calories for 5.2oz serving size. Nowhere on the site does it list servings per container, so I assumed this was the correct info for the entire thing. Only, according to other websites, the container you're given is actually 7oz, meaning it's actually 200 calories.

While I understand this is only 50 calories difference, the fact that food labels do this sort of thing all the time gets under my skin. Look, you're McDonald's, I don't expect you to be especially healthy. I just need to know how many calories are actually in your product. Is that so hard to ask?

And while the other websites might just be sporting outdated data, the fact that I have to be paranoid about this sort of thing irks me. And that's assuming that restaurants actually put out correct nutritional info in the first place.

#endrant.

Replies

  • Freidon
    Freidon Posts: 169 Member
    Oops, forgot the question. Anyone come across similar situations? Or am I just overreacting?
  • Fat_Bottomed_Girl
    Fat_Bottomed_Girl Posts: 355 Member
    You are not overreacting, it's BS. I am very wary of these things as well. I just make sure to pay extra careful attention and then let the chips fall where they may. I do my best, but try not to obsess. :)
  • conniemaxwell5
    conniemaxwell5 Posts: 943 Member
    I agree. Restaurants should be required to disclose the amount of calories in the amount of food they are serving you.
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  • LinaBo
    LinaBo Posts: 342 Member
    Only, according to other websites, the container you're given is actually 7oz, meaning it's actually 200 calories.

    How can you be sure that the other sites are correct? If that data is user-submitted, it's highly suspect. Perhaps they're submissions from other countries, where products are often slightly different.

    My McDonald's Canada website lists the 200 calories, approx. 7 oz version. I don't know where you're posting from, but perhaps you're seeing a lot of Canadian entries (and perhaps other countries have the same size for their yogurt, as well).

    I would have kept the container, brought it home, and measured out 5.2 oz of water into it, and then bring it up to 7 oz, seeing how far the water line was for each.
  • deathbypretzel
    deathbypretzel Posts: 45
    This kills me, especially in frozen TV dinner type things. I try not to eat them very often but sometimes they're just convienient! So a clearly-one-person bowl of vegetarian chili is 190 calories per serving. Sounds good, right? Except that there are two servings in ONE bowl! Who the hell is going to only eat half of it?!
    It's a lot worse at fast food places like you said at McDonald's though, I think, because you go there assuming that what you are given is one serving. Why would it be anything but? Bleh.
  • Freidon
    Freidon Posts: 169 Member
    Oops, forgot the question. Anyone come across similar situations? Or am I just overreacting?

    There was a thread like this about ridiculous portion sizes on foods. Like, I was at the car wash, inside they have stuff you can buy to eat while you wait. I was looking at the nuts. Each package had 3.5 servings, or something stupid like that. Ok, so I'm supposed to sit there and portion it out?

    Here's the thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/899646-most-ridiculous-serving-size?hl=Ridiculous+serving+sizes

    Thanks! Didn't realize that was there.
  • Lesa_Sass
    Lesa_Sass Posts: 2,213 Member
    No, you are not over reacting, it is very misleading.

    My peeve is the "natural flavors" thing they put on packaging. Notice that the word NATURAL is in big bold letters and the word flavors is small. So it leads you to believe that the ingredients are natural when indeed they actually are not. It could be lemon flavored but a chemical made to taste like lemon is used.

    Another one is the "whole grain" thing. I got some tortilla chips last year that had WHOLE GRAIN in bold letters and I get them home and see that they were only made of corn, which is a grain, HAHA. Joke is on me.

    Since I have chronic pain I have been following the anti inflammatory diet (it works for my pain by the way, my pain levels have gone down at least 80%) I try to eat as close as I can from farm to fork. But even the salad lettuce in some fast food places has preservatives to keep it from turning brown.

    Did you know that many things that are in our foods are banned in other countries? Companies like Kraft makes separate batches of food for Europe because their standards are higher.
  • deathbypretzel
    deathbypretzel Posts: 45
    Did you know that many things that are in our foods are banned in other countries? Companies like Kraft makes separate batches of food for Europe because their standards are higher.

    From what I've heard from my friends in Canada, everything that contains corn syrup has to be labeled as such....So companies don't produce anything with corn syrup in Canada because it doesn't sell!
  • PJmetts
    PJmetts Posts: 210 Member
    When Mc D's put the Yogurt parfet on their dollar menu they made it much smaller (according to my mom, I don't eat there) so maybe the 5 Oz is correct now.
  • Freidon
    Freidon Posts: 169 Member
    Only, according to other websites, the container you're given is actually 7oz, meaning it's actually 200 calories.

    How can you be sure that the other sites are correct? If that data is user-submitted, it's highly suspect. Perhaps they're submissions from other countries, where products are often slightly different.

    My McDonald's Canada website lists the 200 calories, approx. 7 oz version. I don't know where you're posting from, but perhaps you're seeing a lot of Canadian entries (and perhaps other countries have the same size for their yogurt, as well).

    I would have kept the container, brought it home, and measured out 5.2 oz of water into it, and then bring it up to 7 oz, seeing how far the water line was for each.

    I'm not certain that's actually correct information, hence the "And while the other websites might just be sporting outdated data, the fact that I have to be paranoid about this sort of thing irks me." bit. Most of the confusion seems to be in that there is (or was) a "snack" and "regular" size, while their website doesn't make a distinction.

    And thanks for the advice! I didn't even think about comparing sizes. I wouldn't be able to do it tonight, as my boyfriend already thinks my eating habits are a bit overboard, but I could always try it next time.
    This kills me, especially in frozen TV dinner type things.

    I know! I'm better at catching myself now, but when I first started watching what I ate, I'd end up eating twice as much as I thought I did the next time I glanced at the label.
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  • therayeraye
    therayeraye Posts: 17 Member

    From what I've heard from my friends in Canada, everything that contains corn syrup has to be labeled as such....So companies don't produce anything with corn syrup in Canada because it doesn't sell!

    I live in canada and I can assure you high fructose corn syrup sells... it's just adequately labelled when it does :D

    One thing I hate is serving sizes that are so big it looks like they were trying to omit ingredients. For example a serving size of 57 chips. Why such a large serving? *skeptical eyes*
  • hannakengu
    hannakengu Posts: 79 Member
    This is exactly what I hated when I lived in the US for a year. Now I live in Finland, and here every product has to have their nutritional values stated per 100 grams (or 100 ml for liquids). It makes it easier to compare different products, and counting calories is a lot easier. Plus, if I buy something and only want to eat some of it, I can just take what I want, measure (or eyeball) it and store the rest, instead of going through the "ok so this thing has 6 servings and each is 235kcals and I took like maybe one fourth of the packet so that makes....." thing. Of course, a lot of foods also have the values counted for what the producer thinks is a serving size, and I think restaurants only state their values per the serving - but I*m pretty sure it's the serving they actually serve you.

    Oh well, I guess I'm not helping with your irritation.
  • majope
    majope Posts: 1,325 Member
    This is exactly what I hated when I lived in the US for a year. Now I live in Finland, and here every product has to have their nutritional values stated per 100 grams (or 100 ml for liquids). It makes it easier to compare different products, and counting calories is a lot easier. Plus, if I buy something and only want to eat some of it, I can just take what I want, measure (or eyeball) it and store the rest, instead of going through the "ok so this thing has 6 servings and each is 235kcals and I took like maybe one fourth of the packet so that makes....." thing. Of course, a lot of foods also have the values counted for what the producer thinks is a serving size, and I think restaurants only state their values per the serving - but I*m pretty sure it's the serving they actually serve you.

    Oh well, I guess I'm not helping with your irritation.
    See, as an American, when I lived in Finland it drove me crazy not to have serving sizes listed on labels. "Okay, there are 340 calories in 100 grams, but the package is 625 grams, and there are 3 of us in the household--but this looks like it might serve 4, or even 5...oh, and I don't have a kitchen scale..."
  • exostan
    exostan Posts: 38
    I agree..this is why I don't eat out anymore. If the nutritional info doesn't have the serving size it's useless..

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