Serving Size - Rant

We try to watch what we eat. I will generally read labels if I don't know what's in something. I'm mainly looking for sodium, fat and cholesterol numbers. However, you have to be careful because the numbers don't tell the whole story. You also have to look at the serving size and servings per container. Over the past 10 years the serving sizes have steadily dropped to practically microscopic and the servings per container have gone steadily up.

Used to be something like a can of green beans would have "2" servings in it, now it's like "2.7". Really?? How many green beans is this, about 6? And, now the manufacturers have started putting all these weird fractional serving sizes on food (I mean, "2.7"...really?) So, if you've got a target number for your daily intake of something like salt, now you need a freaking calculator to decide if you even want to buy something. This is intentional, and it's misrepresentation!

Here's what's really maddening; salt (sodium) content in virtually everything is skyrocketing, and at the same time the actual contents of the can, package or whatever has been shrinking. So, while the can (for example) weighs the same as it used to (14.5 oz), the ratio of product is now displaced by water to get the weight! And this is happening pretty much across the board!

Now, I don't eat a lot of snack foods, but the other day someone asked me if I wanted their lunch sized bag of Cheetos. I declined, but I decided to look at the ingredients. The first thing which struck me was the bag was smaller, but the contents were practically microscopic compared to what I'd remembered (easily half or less). Yes, it was 1 serving, but there couldn't have been more than 6-7 curls in that bag. Of course, it was loaded with salt (about 350mg if I recall correctly).

Everyone blathers endlessly about Americans being generally obese, and about how much crap we eat. Okay, I get it, and I'm doing something about it. Yet the more I try to do something about it, the more salt they load in, the more water they displace product with, and the more air in the bag to give it shelf presence. Oh, and don't even get me started on processed foods and ready to eat stuff! That stuff might as well be labeled "BAD JU-JU!" in big bold letters right on the package.

GRRRRRRR!!!!

Now I look at everything for contents before buying / eating something, and the more I look at stuff the madder I get!!!

Granted, I'm grumpy today because I've somehow jacked up my carcass (as DB says) and I'm hurtin'. But I'm hungry and I'm trying to find something even remotely healthy to eat. Then I find something with some decent numbers, and...

Servings per container - 3.2
Servings per container - 2.7
Servings per container - 4.3

I think food producers should only be able to put the total amount of the contents on the label...and let US figure out what our serving size should be. This is just a BS marketing technique!!!

GRRRRR!!!

They're selling us crap, they're putting less crap in the package, but the amount of bad ju-ju crap inside is just going up (not down) even though there's less crap inside to eat. And the price for this "crap" keeps going up...way up!

/rant

Okay, I got that off my chest.

**sigh**

Real food. We shop the outside of the grocery first - you have your own cattle, so I trust you have access to good meat without having to search it out.

Seriously.

I dropped about 50 pounds over the last two years. It's about mostly cooking your own food so you know what's in it, and then when you buy stuff, opt for the fewest ingredients on the label. Stay away from empty carbs like refined bread, chips, soda, etc., or keep your exposure to them low. They make you hungry faster and don't fill you up as well.

Example: An oz of hard cheese goes further as a snack for 100 cal than the 10 to 12 chips you could eat that will take up 130 to 150 cal. You wouldn't think it would, but it does because the fat in the cheese is more satisfying/satiating.

Worry less about serving sizes and more about calories overall. If your calorie goal is roughly 100 calories for the snack, then have two servings if that nets you the calories you need.

And drink lots of water or tea. Sometimes, your hunger is thirst in disguise.

If you're having trouble keeping to your calories, weigh and measure your food with a scale and measuring cups.

Addendum.

I hear you.

I've been there; done that. These last few months have been tough. I've been closing in on my goal weight, so I've been having to make all kinds of tough choices. I baked brownies for my kids' camp lunches, and a tiny little square (like 3 bites) was 138 calories! And in the evening, I was having to make choices between whether or not I would have a brownie or some cheese or olives or sunflower seeds which would be more filling even if they weren't sweet, chocolately, sinful goodness for those 3 bites and leave me still hungry for more.

I made it though! Now I'm on maintenance, but still making some tough calls here and there.

Sorry...maybe I'm not quite done yet afterall...

Here's the icing on the cake. Yesterday while at the store I bought a salad for my lunch today. The salad is a Chef Salad with white chicken meat. It weighs 12.2 oz. It has lettuce, cucumber, chicken, cheese and ranch dressing (which I can't stand, but the salad looked good). (another rant about Ranch Dressing possibly forthcoming...why always ranch, ranch on freaking everything anymore???)

Anyway, today I start looking at the ingredients. It's a salad, so it can't be that bad, right? Well...

Sodium - 450mg
Fat - 12g
Sat Fat - 9g
Cholesterol - 65mg

Here's the kicker...Servings per container - 3.5!!!!!

If you look at the recommended daily allowance percentages for all of the above things, you will see that if I was to eat that whole salad I would be over 100% on virtually ever number (for the whole day!!)

Yeah, I could ditch a some of the bad stuff just by ditching the ranch dressing (which I was going to do anyway), but still the point remains.

Hmmm. I just wighed my quarter pounder and its only 3.725 ounces!!!!!!

a reply to: ketsuko

Meat is never an issue. That one is easy for us.

I'm not even too worried about calories or fat (saturated fat yes, but other fat not so much and absolutely zero 'poly'). I look at it just to make sure it's not something stupid. Salt is the one I have to watch for, and I do look at cholesterol.

Let me tell ya, it's hard to eat healthy living way out in the country. Many don't, because it's so far to the store (30 miles in our case). So for many convenience is king. I work hard to stay out of the convenience trap, and as you know we both love to cook, BUT careful preparation of meals takes time. And that 120 mile round-trip to work for 8 hours, and then all the other stuff to deal with...there's got to be at least "some" convenience. Otherwise there's just no time.

a reply to: lakenheath24

Yep, another example. And, if you look carefully, there will be small print somewhere which says - **Weight before cooking.

I hear you man. A six pack still has six twelve oz. beers in it, but now I have to drink ten of them. What sort of devilment
is that?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Ah, the other side of country life!

Some of the members on the app I use will cook entrees in huge quantities, portion, and freeze for convenient eating. You have to make sure what you're making is something that freezes/thaws well, but most soups and stews are like that ... cassaroles.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

So, if you've got a target number for your daily intake of something like salt, now you need a freaking calculator

Don't worry,.. Facebook and Google can target your daily intake ...

Didnt subway get sued over their footlongs being 11 inches????

a reply to: lakenheath24

The misrepresentation and trickery used in the food industry is absolutely stunning when you look into it carefully.

It's just lies upon lies everywhere (well, that and fine print obfuscation game).

This is one of the (few) things I like about traveling to lesser developed countries, most of the food is fresh prepped, so there's not a lot of artificial ingredients. (Of course, you take your life into your own hands every time you eat, but hey, at least it's "fresh" cholera or typhoid!)

Iv noticed they try to adjust everything to make it under 100 calories some of these products I'm fairly shure we can sue them for it ... I mean if you cant actually divide the item bye the number they list on the package that would be lying

What bothers me is how they are putting Aspartame in everything it uce to only be diet drinks

Ok. I don't have an issue with the 'shrinking" serving sizes. Know why? Because we're a nation of fatasses who've spent decades overeating those portions from a young age, and thinking those old "serving sizes" were realistic.

They weren't, we were just accustomed to overeating and thought that gluttony was acceptable portions for the calorie load. It wasn't.

I love me some pasta salad, but you won't catch me eating more than a few ounces of it with a meal, because it's loaded with calories. It's supposed to be a proportionally SMALL side dish on the plate, not half of it, dude.

a reply to: Nyiah

So no problem then, right?

Life is good for you. Glad to hear it!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Nyiah

So no problem then, right?

Life is good for you. Glad to hear it!

You strike me as the type who eats the whole damn box of mac & cheese without thinking about it, to be honest. That's actually a side dish, not a meal, and is why the serving size is so small on the label when you notice it. Instead of getting pissy about the sizes of portions, maybe give understanding what the foods were originally meant to be a go instead, eh?

a reply to: Nyiah

LOLOLOL!!! I 'strike you as the type'????? Are you for real???? Please tell me you're joking, "eh"! You don't know a damn thing about me!

You 'strike me as the type'... who wants to be contrary about virtually everything just for the sake of being contrary!

So there.

originally posted by: AttitudeProblem

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

So, if you've got a target number for your daily intake of something like salt, now you need a freaking calculator

Don't worry,.. Facebook and Google can target your daily intake ...

And sell it to the highest bidder.

a reply to: schuyler

DOH!!

Oh wait....

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Look at the bright side -- as farmer/rancher, you engage in a good deal of heavy physical labor. Those are calories that need replacing, so you have more of a budget than most of us office rats.