Argh! misleading nutrition labels

It's funny since the old serving sizes are mandated by law for the most part too, based on the amount that's supposedly proper to eat. I get the argument for both, although by bottle for a drink is clearer especially if someone reads it carelessly.

I don't understand why everyone throws such a fit over a can of soup being listed at having two servings. Growing up, my family always split a can of soup between at least two people. Sometimes three. I still always split a can with someone else when I eat soup.

That said, we always had something with the soup, like a salad or half sandwich or something. My parents always said that a can of soup had too much sodium for one person, so it was better if you shared it with someone else and ate something less salty with it. Maybe everyone else is just only eating soup, and nothing else? I don't know. This argument just confuses me.

Edit: Same deal with poptarts. Growing up in my famil, you were a pig if you are both poptarts in the foil pack. We always ate one and either gave the other to someone else or put it in a sandwich bag for later.

My biggest pet peeve with serving sizes is with cereal. It drives me up the wall that every cereal is basically 3/4 cup serving size. It's a ridiculous expectation.

abetterluke wrote: »

My biggest pet peeve with serving sizes is with cereal. It drives me up the wall that every cereal is basically 3/4 cup serving size. It's a ridiculous expectation.

I don't care for cold cereal, but oatmeal is like 44 g dry, and that seems perfect for me. I also find the serving sizes for pasta and rice quite reasonable.

The problem with listing larger sizes because the US has proportion distortion and people eat too much on average (given the total calories consumed on average), is that people who read labels get their idea of what is a normal serving in part from what is listed. That's why the current situation has federal regs governing how big a serving that is listed can be based on what's supposed to be a normal serving.

I don't think it's too hard for people to see how many servings are in a container. I've always checked that when I was bothering to read labels.

I do think it's misleading if a sandwich or cookie is sold as "2 servings," but I haven't seen that and I suspect restaurants aren't permitted to do that. (Pret does sell their dressings in 2 serving packets, which is annoying, but not as annoying as wasting the calories on those dressings to start.)

OsricTheKnight wrote: »

andrikosDE wrote: »

Come on America, join the metric world, you can do it.

I love metric, but it'll take me a while to get used to telling people that 14,651 kJ = 1 pound of fat.

Osric

Strawblackcat wrote: »

I don't understand why everyone throws such a fit over a can of soup being listed at having two servings. Growing up, my family always split a can of soup between at least two people. Sometimes three. I still always split a can with someone else when I eat soup.

That said, we always had something with the soup, like a salad or half sandwich or something. My parents always said that a can of soup had too much sodium for one person, so it was better if you shared it with someone else and ate something less salty with it. Maybe everyone else is just only eating soup, and nothing else? I don't know. This argument just confuses me.

Edit: Same deal with poptarts. Growing up in my famil, you were a pig if you are both poptarts in the foil pack. We always ate one and either gave the other to someone else or put it in a sandwich bag for later.

But what did you eat WITH the pop tart?

sheldonklein wrote: »

I've been buying a prepared manicotti from Costco. According to the label, there are 7 servings in the package. There are 5 manicotti in the package. I guess I'm supposed to eat 5/7 of a manicotti and serve someone else the stubs.

And now all of the "fair division" things I had to learn in math come into play... Ha!

sheldonklein wrote: »

I've been buying a prepared manicotti from Costco. According to the label, there are 7 servings in the package. There are 5 manicotti in the package. I guess I'm supposed to eat 5/7 of a manicotti and serve someone else the stubs.

LMAO

I made a brownie package once. The listed serving size was 1/88th of a package. Made absolutely no sense to me then, but today I might just look by weight

Or those Trader Joe's wraps that have 2 servings. Almost bought one until I realized that... ugh.

Or those waffles I love that not only state 8 servings in a package (4 waffles), but when you weigh them, each waffle is close to 3 servings. It's lovely how your 140 calories waffle turns into a 340 calories waffle.

So yeah... that's why I read labels and weigh everything now.