Let me explain. Last night Paul cooked up a frozen package of Contessa brand Shrimp Mediterranean for our supper. Restaurant Quality. It was his impulse buy of the week at the grocery store.
As he followed the directions and plunked the frozen hulk into the pan to saute, two realizations came to him:
#1. How are you supposed to saute a frozen hulk?
#2. There didn't seem to be much food there.
He informed me that according to the package, it contained four servings.
FOUR servings??? For who? Infants can't eat that stuff yet!
Paul split the entire contents in half, "two" servings for each of us. He was very hungry after his little snack. Me, well, it was enough for me, but only because I wasn't hungry and am fighting a little tummy bug. So I was okay with it. But I know me, and if I had been hungry?
It actually was very tasty, but going forth? We now know it is not a stand-alone dinner and we must make something else to go with it, along with maybe adding a few extra mushrooms and shrimp of our own to the mix. Lesson learned.
Which got me to thinking about the sick twisted masochists who determine that 28 almonds is a serving. A half cup of granola is a serving. Eleven potato chips is a serving.
Do you know how much time it would take me to balance out all the little servings of dozens
of foods each day to meet the RDA of my caloric intake??? I'd be eating all day. Two of this, a handful of those...Don't bother me right now, I'm on my seventh food trying to meet the RDA of vitamin B12. And after that I'll be working on vitamin A.The obvious solution is to pack our entire RDAs into a tiny chewable tablet to be taken every morning with our half cup of granola and 4oz of orange juice.
Logistically, it could be a problem too. If I have an 11oz bag of chips, and there are 11 chips in a serving, then there are approximately 11 servings. If I have a family of 11 and we curl up to watch Slumdog Millionaire and all have a serving of chips to enjoy while we watch the movie? The bag is gone. Now, for me and Paul? If we each had a serving of chips every day, that bag would be sitting in the cupboard for a week. But we don't. We may eat chips once a week, or maybe not even. Which means if we open the 11oz bag to have 11 chips with our tuna fish sandwich, that bag might sit there for 10 more weeks patiently keeping 10 more servings questionably fresh. Five weeks if we BOTH have 11 chips a week.
Did our ancestors eat like this?
"Hey, Mongo, you've had your serving size of the mammouth! Go find sixteen berries and get out of the way!"
So back to my question. This serving size crap. Who and Why?
Peace and two pieces of apple pie for desert.
7 comments:
This is where extra pounds come from....just saying.
On the other hand, groceries for five at double the recommended servings is why my pantry is so damn full.
hahaha--I feel like you stepped in to my world for a night...I read freaking serving sizes for EVERYTHING so that I know approximately how much I have and can then count in my head the calories I've already had for the day, what I'm adding at that moment, and if it's something I need for the day. I keep it simple though--Dairy.Fruit.Vegetable.protein. And I pray that what I take in has what I need. I mean, we're all still walking upright...
Fact is, back in the day I believe our ancestors either gathered or ate in feasts...but they ate what was available-and generally burned calories to get their food--so they didn't need to worry....
Did you know that a chocolate chip muffin has 3 servings in it??? and each serving is like 210 calories.
X
Hilarious! Love & Miss you Elf
~Paige
the FDA determines serving sizes. here's a bit about how:
www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qa-lab18.html
:), but what i can't get my head around is what PURPOSE the stated serving size serves???? is it in order to measure calories? because that is the only way that can be useful in any half sense. HOW does someone come up with ONE muffin being THREE servings????? is it in order to fool us into thinking that we are eating something GOOD for us? Because ONE serving has 210 calories? when in fact, who makes a muffin last THREE DAYS????? because it SOUNDS better than "one muffin being 630 calories" ????? So they diminish it to a more palatable (pun intended) caloric count and make a serving size crumbs.
Serving size, shmerving size. its another manipulation by the industry...
:) and that is my rant for the day.
PT - miss you too! thanks!
V - i knew YOU would have an answer to how serving size was developed and managed. just knew it. and i may have a follow up after briefly perusing the link which you included, which impressed me. :)
I don't know....it all makes sense to me. They base it on a 2000k diet, which is the amount of calories that a normal adult burns daily.
Elf, you're so aggressive...eat your half a cornflake and relax.
Post a Comment