The Sphere
General Garbage => Tropical Paradise of Hard Shelled Fruits => Topic started by: B E C K on Sep 27, 2006, 04:45:58 PM
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..."United States still combating illiteracy". I mean, I agree a bottle or can of something should say the entire amount. Don't be a cheater.
From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060927/ap_on_...1fl1a24cA;_ylu= (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060927/ap_on_he_me/diet_portion_confusion_4;_ylt=Ar3Ogzp_GjSnDRmca1L1fl1a24cA;_ylu=)
and posted a late breaking 40 minutes ago:
Americans mistaking package for portion
By CANDICE CHOI, Associated Press Writer (And Dragon Lady.)
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - At 170 calories per serving, Kathryn Mora figured the spaghetti was harmless. So she slurped away, eating her fill. A closer look at the nutrition label destroyed all those warm comfort food feelings: A serving was just an eighth of the box — not the whole thing.
(http://www.darthnuriko.com/forums/uploads/post-2-1159392580.jpg)
"I can eat the entire box, like that," said Mora, snapping her fingers.
A common pitfall when checking nutrition labels is failing to factor in serving size, according to a small study by Vanderbilt University researchers. And even when people do, they often miscalculate how much they're eating. Americans' inability to understand portion control [i.e. READ] is one reason cited for the country's climbing obesity rates.
Vanderbilt's study was conducted between June 2004 and April 2005 when the low-carb craze was at its height, so many of the questions involving serving size focused on carbohydrate counts. Researchers found only about a third of the volunteers correctly estimated how many carbs were in a 20-ounce bottle of soda.
"Most people don't realize those have 2.5 servings," said Dr. Russell Rothman, lead author of the study.
Though less frequent, the same mistakes could happen when estimating calories, Rothman said. So someone drinking a 20-ounce bottle of soda may think they're getting just 100 calories when they're actually guzzling 250.
In the study, similar mistakes were made on other foods: bagels, a microwave dinner, peanut butter, a pint of ice cream, cookies and candy. That was despite nearly all respondents saying they regularly chell nutrition information.
Those with lower education levels were more likely to misinterpret labels [i.e. Be fucking illiterate], but mistakes were made across the board.
Set by the federal
Food and Drug Administration in 1993, serving sizes are often smaller than most Americans eat in a sitting. And bigger packaging over the years may have distorted perceptions.
A serving size for a drink, for example, is 8 ounces. But a can of soda has 12 ounces and most bottled sodas now contain 20 ounces or more.
Just Three Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies equal a serving — and 160 calories. For Lay's Potato Chips, a serving size of about 15 chips will give you 150 calories.
And, with apologies to Madison Avenue, betcha can't eat just 15. [Shut the fuck up.]
With two-thirds of Americans overweight or obese, the FDA recently solicited suggestions on how to tweak nutrition labels and serving sizes to make them more useful. Consumers suggested labels that reflect the entire package for foods like muffins (two servings), that are typically eaten in a single sitting.
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Americans also complained that serving sizes are too small, especially for sodas and cereal.
Health officials, however, worry that boosting the serving size might be taken as a cue to eat more. [And it will.]
Such changes could also end up fueling confusion, said Regina Hildwine, spokeswoman for the Food Products Association, which opposes sweeping changes to nutrition labeling.
The food industry has responded to the confusion in recent years with a slew of products that help people size up a serving. Chips, crackers, cookies and pudding now come in handy 100-calorie packs, and single-serving packaging has exploded in popularity.
The Vanderbilt study, which surveyed 200 people, found that overall, people answered more than two-thirds of the questions about nutrition labels correctly.
Many were confused about the meaning of "percent daily values" based on a 2,000 calorie diet. [We can't do teh maths either.] However, by far the most common mistake involved serving size; many people failed to notice the serving size number and others just miscalculated. [I like how she completely skews the "reading" part!]
A pint of ice cream, for example, has four half-cup servings — but many of those in the study interpreted that to mean one serving was half the container.
"It might be wishful thinking, but mostly it's just people reading too quickly," Rothman said. ["Or not at all."]
A recent AP-Ipsos poll also found that even when most people chell nutrition labels, they still buy products that scream
(http://www.darthnuriko.com/forums/uploads/post-2-1159393317.jpg)
high calories and fat. (I had to, come on.)
"They're not using (the labels) because they don't understand them," Rothman said. ["Or are not reading them," he later thought.]
Cathy Nonas, a registered dietitian with the American Dietetic Association, said serving size is one of the first things she teaches her patients to look out for when reading nutrition labels.
Portion control may not be the only thing that matters when it comes to eating a healthy diet but, Nonas said, it's a "big piece" of the obesity puzzle. (HA ha.... no.)
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Wow. I know people who do that. People are retarded and deserve diabetes.
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Americans also complained that serving sizes are too small, especially for sodas and cereal.
Awww, poor poor people!
I'm all about reading the calories and servings in a container. I tried to do the low-carb diet, but can't do it. If I spend 2 days without eating something sweet, I shyt down completely.
2000 calorie a day diet? No wonder there are so many overweight people out there! They should cut it down to 1200.
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Actually, if everyone ate only 2,000 a day, then there wouldn't be so many fat people. A lot of people eat three times that, easy.
Part of the problem might be parents giving their kids food to shut them up. As the kid gets older, they begin to depend on food, especially candy and such, to comfort themselves because they were taught that it's an ok way to do things. Even if they don't pay for it. <_<
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Well if they are giving the children food to shut them up, it should at least be healthy food. Everytime I go back to Peru or even Singapore, I lose weight, because the food there is soo healthy. But it's not only me, all of my international friends, when they leave and come back , they look so much thinner because they eat so healthy back in their homes.
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I eat alot more organic foods and stuff only because I don't want to eat partially hydrogenated oils. I love how the box will say 'Trans Fat Free!' but still contain those oils, and bevy of other chemicals that we don't need to eat. Hydrolyzed soy protein? Ew. Sodium Benzoate? If you eat foods high in Vitamin C, it turns into Bezene, the stuff that gives cancer and isn't allowed in food.
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NY wants to ban trans fat in their restaurants, so that's good.
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I eat alot more organic foods and stuff only because I don't want to eat partially hydrogenated oils. I love how the box will say 'Trans Fat Free!' but still contain those oils, and bevy of other chemicals that we don't need to eat. Hydrolyzed soy protein? Ew. Sodium Benzoate? If you eat foods high in Vitamin C, it turns into Bezene, the stuff that gives cancer and isn't allowed in food.
Egad, do you ever have orange juice?
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I drink alot of protien and fruit and yogurt shakes, in which I put oranges. I do make alot of chili too. :D
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Do you drink the juice though or do you just use the natural orange fruit?