What really grinds my gears…
…Is how hard it is to compare food from the nutritional information on the boxes. Take this example here- two different styles of Melba Toast, with info for TWO different amounts! WTF! Do I really need to bring a calculator to the damn grocery store to make a proper comparison? It gets pretty damn frustrating when you’re standing in the food isle doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out which food has more calories in it. I’ve lost it and gone on a rant about this on more than one occasion.
I mean seriously, WTF.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what grinds my gears. Goodnight.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Don’t look at the number of toasts.
Look at the amount they weigh in grams.
A difference of 2 whole grams!
Which you wouldn’t even notice anyways.
Box 1: 5 toasts = 24g
Box 2: 4 toasts = 22g
Not a whole lot of gymnastics there.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
What a pain!
Although, considering the 5 toasts has 80 calories, and the 4 toasts have 90, I would say the 5 toasts one is better. Although it does have considerably more sodium, so I suppose it depends what you are looking out for. ;)
April 11th, 2008 at 7:19 am
@Steph: You’re right, maybe using Melba Toast wasn’t the best example for me to use here, but in general, I find food manufacturers make it difficult on purpose to compare food just to keep consumers in the dark.
@Allison: one of the styles was salt free! Tastes like cardboard on its own, but with a topping tastes just fine!
April 11th, 2008 at 7:43 am
The one on the left is better for you- Lots more fiber to fill you up for less calories!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
There is a granola bar company that totally got me with a per serving scam. What they do is take a regular sized granola bar and put it in a regular granola bar package but they cut it in half, so they say that you are in fact getting two granola bars in each package and so the nutrition information they provided was for “one bar” which was actually half of the so obviously single serving package. In conclusion, yeah that stuff totally grinds my gears too. I’ve also seen nutritional information on a cake that was “per 1/16th of the cake” and it was not a large cake.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Folks, keep in mind that our “friendly” manufactures provide us with this “wonderful and oh so helpful” info because by law they are required to do so. I do not believe, even for a second that any of them want to help us understand or compair products. In fact nattyfu’s granola story points out they want us to eat more of their products. By putting “two” bars in one small package and listing content for “one” bar they are really trying to trick the average consumer. KJ