do you now read food labels ?

rob504
rob504 Posts: 79
edited September 29 in Food and Nutrition
A favorite dish of mine is tagliatelle with creamy sauce. The creamy sauce being mainly mascapone, which I happily and somewhat lavishly spoon on between layers of tagliatelle and prosciutto ham, plus a few peas and maybe some mushrooms for good measure. Oh, and some mozeralla grated on top with some knobs of butter. You can now see how I managed to pile the pounds on cant you?
It is only now, that i have started reading labeling, that I discover the true horror. A 250g tub of the mascarpone contains 1087 kcal.
Rather misleadingly on the top of the container it clearly states 130 calories which is where i would have previously stopped reading, but since my MFP education I read more closely and discover 130 calories is for a measly 30g.
Needless to say i now am not quite so liberal with the quantity I use.
The lesson being, take your specs with you when you shop.

Replies

  • CherrySunday
    CherrySunday Posts: 301
    I always read them now, ALWAYS!! They pull all kinds of tricks on the serving sizes too.. even on drinks! The thing that got me on the labels was the high content of sodium in almost every product!
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
    Yup, this is something they use to mask the true calorie count. They say its, for example, 180 cal a SERVING. What they dont tell you is that a SERVING is like 1/8th of the pizza.

    After a while though you stop reading the labels as you kinda know what its likely to be. I only really read the labels now on new things im tempted to try.
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
    The thing that got me on the labels was the high content of sodium in almost every product!

    This. So much this. Its totally put me off frozen or processed pre-made meals.
  • SimplyDeLish
    SimplyDeLish Posts: 539
    Read them always! Yes, specs are necessary!

    Restaurants are now doing the same thing...listing calories per serving. The problem is that when you read the info carefully some of their entrees are 2, 3, even 4 servings.
  • titletown
    titletown Posts: 377 Member
    I get a big kick out of the misleading labels, they've already found a way around these things LOL.

    Like a can of soda, I've seen cans that say like 150 calories per serving...

    Fair enough...

    Upon closer inspection you see, a can contains 2.5 servings per.

    Who the heck drinks a little over a third of a can of soda.

    Come On! LOL

    And for the record, I rarely ever drink soda anymore, water is about it, oh and way too much coffee!
  • Moriarty_697
    Moriarty_697 Posts: 226 Member
    It's funny how the more you educate yourself about what is in food, the less likely you are to wander into the middle of a grocery store. Excessive calories, fat and ridiculous amounts of sodium seem to come wrapped up with most food found in boxes, bags or cans.
  • Maria_81
    Maria_81 Posts: 152
    Yes, absolutely I do! I'm looking for unnecessary sugars, fats, ect. I've become very particular about what's in food these days. The more natural the better.
  • vatruitt
    vatruitt Posts: 15 Member
    I definitely look at the labels! I can give them a quick once-over and it helps me evaluate what I'm about to buy. I immediately look at calories and serving sizes, a lot of packaged foods pull the 100 calories per serving, but that serving is one bite trick.
    Actually it saved me from buying Kashi cereal at walmart today. I looked at the back and it had more calories per serving than a bag of potato chips. A bit of extra fiber ain't worth that.
  • brendalyne
    brendalyne Posts: 497
    It's funny how the more you educate yourself about what is in food, the less likely you are to wander into the middle of a grocery store. Excessive calories, fat and ridiculous amounts of sodium seem to come wrapped up with most food found in boxes, bags or cans.

    ^THIS IS SO TRUE!
  • gothicprophet
    gothicprophet Posts: 189
    The thing that got me on the labels was the high content of sodium in almost every product!

    This. So much this. Its totally put me off frozen or processed pre-made meals.

    QFT... Since I started reading nutrition labels (shortly before I started on MFP) it's been awful. lol. Some of my favorite foods have since had to be culled from the diet. Oh well, sometimes to get what we want in life we must make sacrifices.
  • candistyx
    candistyx Posts: 547 Member
    I always did but I am a nerd.
This discussion has been closed.

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