Parkay 0 calorie butter spray is 832 calories a bottle!

I think you make a really good point here about how the layperson is being manipulated into thinking they are being healthy and eating less by marketing strategies and poor information

A lot of people just don't know what calories are or what calories are for because the information out there is SO simplified that it has because useless at best and detrimental at worse.

There are some people that, when trying to lose weight, think they have to burn all of the calories they eat through extra cardio activity because they just don't understand what calories are or what they are for. And it isn't their fault. At what point are you meant to think that something is weird about it and ask any different if they are running on the 'everyone knows' logic.

If someone doesn't really know anything about calories other than 'eat less of them' then a 0 calorie option is going to look good to them. They don't know that fat has 9 calories per gram, thats something that we here all had to actively go and find out to learn. They might not even know that soy bean oil is a fat, or if they do know it's a fat they might think it's a low calorie fat (remember, most people don't know that macronutrients have fixed calories per gram and there has been no reason or opportunity for them to find this out) because it's not an unhealthy fat like butter is. They can only assume the package is being honest because of course there are regulations about these things and they aren't allowed to lie

The lay person doesn't know that 'healthy' oils have pretty much the same calorie content as 'unhealthy' oils and so will glug out over 3 tablespoons of it when cooking or dressing something, whereas if they used something like butter they would have used caution because they know it's 'unhealthy'.

All of this simple relative information isn't helping anybody. I think most people here on mfp who are doing well had to go out and discover extra stuff that they never knew before. Stuff they wouldn't have even thought of asking before.

Because people read bad articles about food and nutrition and depend on 'everyone knows' logic to get them by people are doing badly without knowing why at all!! And of course everyone knows that olive oil, avocados and low fat foods like pasta and and low fat yoghurt (pumped full of sugar by the way, to get the flavour back and may not even be lower calorie) are good for you! Everyone knows! So people eat them with abandon because they want to be healthy. Because that's the advice. Eat this not that, so I guess I'll eat ALL OF THIS because it's good for me and if it's good for me I'm going to lose weight.

I want to just get rid of the idea of 'healthy foods' and 'unhealthy foods'. In my view there is only 'food' and 'poison'. Don't eat poison. Don't eat more food than you need.

((Slowly removes straw from bottle of parkay butter spray))) .......craaaaaaaaaap.

From the FDA.
N7. When the caloric value for a serving of a food is less than 5 calories, can the actual caloric value be declared?

Answer: The caloric value of a product containing less than 5 calories may be expressed as zero or to the nearest 5 calorie increment (i.e., zero or 5 depending on the level). Foods with less than 5 calories meet the definition of “calorie free” and any differences are dietarily insignificant. 21 CFR 101.9(c)(1)


On a similar note, Vlasic whole dill pickles are listed as zero calories per serving. Of course, a serving is 1 oz of a pickle. Like anyone only eats 1 oz of a pickle. Not THAT is lawsuit worthy!!

'Aint NOBODY got time fo' a 1oz pickle!!!

(4) For dietary supplements, claims regarding calories may not be made on products that meet the criteria in 101.60(b)(1) or (b)(2) for "calorie free" or "low calorie" claims except when an equivalent amount of a similar dietary supplement (e.g., another protein supplement) that the labeled food resembles and for which it substitutes, normally exceeds the definition for "low calorie" in 101.60(b)(2).

(b)Calorie content claims. (1) The terms "calorie free," "free of calories," "no calories," "zero calories," "without calories," "trivial source of calories," "negligible source of calories," or "dietarily insignificant source of calories" may be used on the label or in the labeling of foods, provided that:

(i) The food contains less than 5 calories per reference amount customarily consumed and per labeled serving.

(ii) As required in 101.13(e)(2), if the food meets this condition without the benefit of special processing, alteration, formulation, or reformulation to lower the caloric content, it is labeled to disclose that calories are not usually present in the food (e.g., "cider vinegar, a calorie free food").

So honestly the easy answer for anyone stressing here is this: count all things that list 0 calories as 5.

From the FDA.
N7. When the caloric value for a serving of a food is less than 5 calories, can the actual caloric value be declared?

Answer: The caloric value of a product containing less than 5 calories may be expressed as zero or to the nearest 5 calorie increment (i.e., zero or 5 depending on the level). Foods with less than 5 calories meet the definition of “calorie free” and any differences are dietarily insignificant. 21 CFR 101.9(c)(1)


On a similar note, Vlasic whole dill pickles are listed as zero calories per serving. Of course, a serving is 1 oz of a pickle. Like anyone only eats 1 oz of a pickle. Not THAT is lawsuit worthy!!

When did anything less than 5 = 0 ?! I'm not a math major but ..........