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They really do need to change food labeling

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The problem is, we as people consider a "serving" to be "how much food I eat" where as the packaging assumes you are eating 1 food pyramid per day, with X servings of breads and Y servings of meats and Z servings of fruits and then a bunch of servings of Vegetables and other boring shits.

Anyhow, people eat like 2 or 3 or 4 meals, but they are supposed to eat like '20 servings' off of the food pyramid.

So, if you eat 1 pizza, you might eat 8 servings of pizza, which counts as 8 servings of "grain" and 1 serving of dairy and 1 serving of veggie...

yea, I think "serving size" should be consistently defined universally. it is a clusterfuck.

1 serving should be 1 Kilogram for solids and 1 L for liquids.
1 KG of chocolate = 1 serving of chocolate.
1 Serving of beer = 1 Liter of beer.

Lets solve this problem of confusing serving sizes, and modernize the USA and get onto the metric system finally once and for all!!!
 
WelshBloke said:
Who the fuck does that?
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Me. Who the hell eats an entire frozen pizza in one sitting. That's a TON of food.

I track my calories fairly religiously, so I know exactly what I'm eating at any given time. An entire frozen pizza is seriously a disgusting amount of food. I just eat a slice or two and then shove the rest in the fridge.
 
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NikolaeVarius said:
Me. Who the hell eats an entire frozen pizza in one sitting. That's a TON of food.

I track my calories fairly religiously, so I know exactly what I'm eating at any given time. An entire frozen pizza is seriously a disgusting amount of food. I just eat a slice or two and then shove the rest in the fridge.
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My post was poking fun at the absurdity of cutting a pizza into 5 pieces. You have to be super intentional to cut a round object into an uneven quantity.
 
KeithP said:
The idea that changing the label will have any effect on a person's decision making process is unbelievably naive.

Wasting resources (time & money) trying to protect idiots from themselves is stupid and pointless.

-KeithP
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I regularly use nutrition labels to decide which item to purchase. If I have no personal preference between brand X and brand Y, but brand X has better nutrition data, then I choose brand X.

Cereal is a great example. I like many cereals for a midday snack and often don't really care which one I'm eating. It is nice to be able to look at any cereal box and know that the "per serving" data is comparable. That way I can see if one cereal has more protein, more fiber, less sugar, etc. Same with peanut butter. It is great to see which brands ruin it by adding lots of extra sugar, even though I like the taste of all brands.

Labeling cereal/peanut butter nutrition data by the box is pretty silly since (a) not many people eat the whole container in a sitting and (b) container sizes can vary significantly from cereal to cereal and peanut butter to peanut butter. Thus, a per serving amount make a lot of sense.

But, for other items like drinks it gets more complicated. Many people drink the whole bottle/can. Thus the per container information is important. But what if you want to compare sugary sports drinks (maybe a 12 oz bottle) to sugary soda (maybe a 2 liter bottle)? Then per serving is the only easy way to compare them. Both bits of information are quite helpful.

In the end, both are helpful, so label both. The cost to revise a print on a container is negligible. The benefits to people like me who actually read and use them is large. I'm not going to spend 10 minutes bringing out my phone to do math on each and every item I buy. Slap both on the label and I can see in seconds the information that I want.
 
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I think labeling needs to change.
I went to buy a bottle of baby powder the other day and nothing on the label indicated whether it was made from real or imitation babies.

I gave up looking and had to use some Old Bay instead 🙁
 
minendo said:
Yet the food industry meets the rules and guidelines outlined by the FDA, USDA, etc which are results of congressional votes, government employees, etc.
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They've paid for those laws, look how much lobbying the food industry does. I can't help that our government is available for purchase. The FDA thinks of the consumer second. They occasionally seem like they try and make some good decisions but anything that will "hurt" the food industry is quickly swept away with a bag full of money.
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Me. Who the hell eats an entire frozen pizza in one sitting. That's a TON of food.

I track my calories fairly religiously, so I know exactly what I'm eating at any given time. An entire frozen pizza is seriously a disgusting amount of food. I just eat a slice or two and then shove the rest in the fridge.
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Not sure how big the frozen pizzas are where you shop but most are pretty damn small. When I go out and get a 10" pizza at a restaurant I don't eat one or two slices and bring the rest home. I eat the whole thing. Most frozen pies could easily be eaten by the average person. I haven't eaten a frozen pizza since I was in my teens but I do look at them occasionally just because of the absurd serving sizes.
 
Just buy Grapenuts. You don't even need milk, you can make anything out of it. If you over eat Grapenuts which is impossible anyway since it's the same as eating sand and gravel mix, the worst that might happen is you won't be able to shit for a couple weeks.

Worries solved.
 
You guys do a A LOT of stupid things (ounces, miles, feet, Fahrenheit etc.)....but your "per serving" to me make more sense than like we have with "per 100g".
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Me. Who the hell eats an entire frozen pizza in one sitting. That's a TON of food.

I track my calories fairly religiously, so I know exactly what I'm eating at any given time. An entire frozen pizza is seriously a disgusting amount of food. I just eat a slice or two and then shove the rest in the fridge.
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I am a thin guy probably barely doing 150lbs. I eat "one entire frozen pizza" like nothing. I am talking about "standard size" frozen pizza, 30cm diameter. And I'd easily eat two if I were not to add extra cheese, mushrooms, salami, peppers, olives etc. I don't think a frozen pizza is a disgusting amount of food.
 
You mean to tell me that candy and chips have nutrition labels on them?

Well I'll be damned! You learn something new everyday.
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Me. Who the hell eats an entire frozen pizza in one sitting. That's a TON of food.

I track my calories fairly religiously, so I know exactly what I'm eating at any given time. An entire frozen pizza is seriously a disgusting amount of food. I just eat a slice or two and then shove the rest in the fridge.
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You're supposed to make your girlfriend do that. Who's wearing the goddam pants in your relationship?
 
flexy said:
I am a thin guy probably barely doing 150lbs. I eat "one entire frozen pizza" like nothing. I am talking about "standard size" frozen pizza, 30cm diameter. And I'd easily eat two if I were not to add extra cheese, mushrooms, salami, peppers, olives etc. I don't think a frozen pizza is a disgusting amount of food.
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When I was younger, I grew up mostly on junk food, I could eat everything from whole apple pies to McDonalds (actually ate McDonalds every single day throughout the day when I was 19 because I worked there because I was going to college and very poor so I ate whenever no one was looking) and I wouldn't gain a lb. I stayed at around 161lbs up until I was 27. I always felt great, had good muscular build as I lifted back then, could party all night and get up to go to work and actually at near 40 I still feel great except I now weight 197lbs. After 27 I gradually increased weight with the most increase in the last 3 years where I gained 10 lbs according to my records....so it can catch up with you.

Point is, everyone is different at various ages. Some kids eat cereal and starve the rest of the day and look like jabba the hut while others don't despite same lifestyles and you can see that difference with siblings where one is quite heavy but they eat the same with same lifestyle. I knew a fat girl who once did the cocain diet, didn't hardly touch food for months and didn't appear to lose anything but her mind.
There are definitely chemical balance issues and some seem to lack the ability to burn stored fat effectively and for me I think the latter is true due to age because I actually eat better now than ever but I only lost 1/2 lb in 6 months on a 1200 - 1500 calorie a day diet and I'm very active so results are always different.

That's why I think people's opinion of fat people is very irrelevant. Some of the worst most disgusting eaters I've personally seen are skinny people. I work with a scrawny guy who buys 4 donuts every morning when we fill up at the fuel station...fucking 4! He might be skinny and seem healthy but his pancreas is fucked.
 
sportage said:
The labeling on how much of what is in a box and the content.
Take a box of Reese's Pieces.
You know when you buy a box, especially in a movie theater, that you will eat the entire box of Reese's. However, on the box the stats are listed for "one serving".
And for Reese's Pieces, they claim 51 pieces equals one serving.
So that, 51 pieces = 200 calories.
51 pieces = 8 gems of fat.
51 pieces = 45mg salt.
51 pieces = 21g of sugar(s).

Who is going to count out 51 pieces? Or of any food or candy, for that matter?

I just guessing, but say there are 250 pieces in a Reese's Pieces box.
That would be 200 calories x 5 = 1000 calories in that one box.
225mg of salt.
40 grams of fat.

I thought this labeling was going to be changed, at some point?
I think I remember hearing that labeling change was coming?
When was the last time anyone ate a single serving of any candy or snack food item?
If you get a box, or a sack bag of chips, normal people eat the entire box or bag.
And I know of many people that will eat the whole box or bag of a full super sized snack.
We're talking the entire family size of candy or whatever.

They really need to change the labeling, but somehow I suspect the food companies are lobbying congress not to act. And we all know how congress is when it comes to protecting the citizenry. Especially when it boils down to corporation vs John Doe citizen.
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I forgot to say this: Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

Non-issue! Look at "servings per container" and be done with it.

"Especially at a movie." That's when you're almost guaranteed to be sharing it with others! Movie size packs should ALWAYS be more than one serving.
 
Ichinisan said:
It tells you how many servings are in a container. Just roughly split it that many times.
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I think his point was that no one is going to count out 17 chips for example. Food should be something you don't really have to think about less you're roughing it in the wilds but our culture is very deep rooted around food. For some, it's a question of do they want to be happy and live a full life or try to be immortal and end up dying of something anyway?

I have outlived 5 peers I went to HS with so far. One suicide, one surgery oopsie, one drugs and not sure about the other two. If any of them took their health that seriously, it was all in vain. I remember the guy who died during surgery, he could bench 400lbs by our senior year. Shame that strength did nothing to protect and lengthen his lifespan.
 
HeXen said:
I think his point was that no one is going to count out 17 chips for example.
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There is no point. You aren't expected to count chips either. Just split roughly according to servings-per-container. "About 51" or "about 17" is just information. No one suggests counting. It's just giving you some idea of how many pieces that generally is.
 
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HeXen said:
I think his point was that no one is going to count out 17 chips for example. Food should be something you don't really have to think about less you're roughing it in the wilds but our culture is very deep rooted around food. For some, it's a question of do they want to be happy and live a full life or try to be immortal and end up dying of something anyway?



I have outlived 5 peers I went to HS with so far. One suicide, one surgery oopsie, one drugs and not sure about the other two. If any of them took their health that seriously, it was all in vain. I remember the guy who died during surgery, he could bench 400lbs by our senior year. Shame that strength did nothing to protect and lengthen his lifespan.
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....and Ichinisan's point was that OP had a stupid point: No one's going to count because no one has to count.

You roughly split according to the servings per container. If two people split something labeled as 2.5 servings then you each know that you had a bit more than what is on the label. If three people split it and you had significantly less than the others, then they probably had close to a serving each. That's why they sell "Sharing Size" M&Ms and such.
 
Food labeling does need to change but, for important reasons not, the OP's inability to figure out large quantities of candy are bad for you. Things like "free range," "vine ripened" and, "best if used by dates" spring to mind.
 
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