You got served.
Aug. 3rd, 2008 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penfield"I have not been afraid of excess: excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit."
- W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up
Tonight, for dinner, I ate Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I'm talking about the original recipe, not the high-falutin' "deluxe" version or the condescending "Easy Mac" version; you know, the stuff made with day-glo orange powder.
Of course, there are a dozen different shapes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese these days, many of them based on cartoon characters that I have to assume are either distressed or drenched to the point of being unrecognizable, amoebic pasta shapes. I am and always have been a devotee of the classic macaroni shape, the kind that looks like miniature ziti (or very, very short straws). This is now advertised on the box as "The Cheesiest," which appears to be an inadvertent indictment of the varietals Spongebob Squarepants, Scooby-Doo, et al.
Intrigued by the product's subtitle, I looked at the ingredients:
Ingredients: ENRICHED MACARONI PRODUCT (DURUM WHEAT FLOUR, WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), CHEESE SAUCE MIX (WHEY, MILKFAT, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SALT, CALCIUM CARBONATE, SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF CITRC ACID, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, LACTIC ACID, MILK, YELLOW 5, YELLOW 6, ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE).
You'll notice that the "cheese sauce mix" does not actually contain any cheese, and that "cheese cultures" finally appears as the very last item on the list.
But I also noticed something else at the top of the nutritional information box. According to ... somebody -- it's unclear whether it is the FDA (the authors of these statistics) or the manufacturer itself -- the box contains "about 3" servings.
My Macaroni & Cheese dinner this evening included chicken and broccoli mixed in, and still I consumed at least half of the prepared noodles. Three servings from that one box seems to me a laughable notion. I looked at other foods in our pantry for the prescribed number of servings:
A can of Campbell's Chunky Soup: about 2 servings
A 1.75 qt tub of Breyers Ice Cream: 14 servings
An 18 oz. box of frosted shredded wheat: 9 servings
A 1 lb. box of dry penne: 8 servings
A 28 oz. jar of creamy peanut butter: 25 servings
Even considering that these products are designed to be mere elements of a meal rather than meals in and of themselves, the serving size estimates all seem wildly out of whack. An entire can of soup isn't nearly enough to satisfy my hunger, no matter how chunky it is. I usually get a maximum of five bowls out of my frosted shredded wheat. And a pound of pasta is usually just enough for dinner and two lunches.
So (a) who is coming up with these figures, and (b) what are they smoking? I strongly suspect -- though I have no evidence yet -- that these numbers are "flexible," and can be adjusted upwards or downwards to artificially manipulate the other RDA levels -- "Only two grams of fat per serving! Of course, the serving size is only three grams."
Or is it just me? We Americans have a reputation for indulging big appetites with big portions, so maybe these miniscule rations are an attempt to bring us more in line with international values. Otherwise, I don't really understand the logic; these companies should be pushing the number of servings lower -- then consumers would be compelled to buy more of it.
- W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up
Tonight, for dinner, I ate Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I'm talking about the original recipe, not the high-falutin' "deluxe" version or the condescending "Easy Mac" version; you know, the stuff made with day-glo orange powder.
Of course, there are a dozen different shapes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese these days, many of them based on cartoon characters that I have to assume are either distressed or drenched to the point of being unrecognizable, amoebic pasta shapes. I am and always have been a devotee of the classic macaroni shape, the kind that looks like miniature ziti (or very, very short straws). This is now advertised on the box as "The Cheesiest," which appears to be an inadvertent indictment of the varietals Spongebob Squarepants, Scooby-Doo, et al.
Intrigued by the product's subtitle, I looked at the ingredients:
Ingredients: ENRICHED MACARONI PRODUCT (DURUM WHEAT FLOUR, WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), CHEESE SAUCE MIX (WHEY, MILKFAT, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SALT, CALCIUM CARBONATE, SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF CITRC ACID, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, LACTIC ACID, MILK, YELLOW 5, YELLOW 6, ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE).
You'll notice that the "cheese sauce mix" does not actually contain any cheese, and that "cheese cultures" finally appears as the very last item on the list.
But I also noticed something else at the top of the nutritional information box. According to ... somebody -- it's unclear whether it is the FDA (the authors of these statistics) or the manufacturer itself -- the box contains "about 3" servings.
My Macaroni & Cheese dinner this evening included chicken and broccoli mixed in, and still I consumed at least half of the prepared noodles. Three servings from that one box seems to me a laughable notion. I looked at other foods in our pantry for the prescribed number of servings:
A can of Campbell's Chunky Soup: about 2 servings
A 1.75 qt tub of Breyers Ice Cream: 14 servings
An 18 oz. box of frosted shredded wheat: 9 servings
A 1 lb. box of dry penne: 8 servings
A 28 oz. jar of creamy peanut butter: 25 servings
Even considering that these products are designed to be mere elements of a meal rather than meals in and of themselves, the serving size estimates all seem wildly out of whack. An entire can of soup isn't nearly enough to satisfy my hunger, no matter how chunky it is. I usually get a maximum of five bowls out of my frosted shredded wheat. And a pound of pasta is usually just enough for dinner and two lunches.
So (a) who is coming up with these figures, and (b) what are they smoking? I strongly suspect -- though I have no evidence yet -- that these numbers are "flexible," and can be adjusted upwards or downwards to artificially manipulate the other RDA levels -- "Only two grams of fat per serving! Of course, the serving size is only three grams."
Or is it just me? We Americans have a reputation for indulging big appetites with big portions, so maybe these miniscule rations are an attempt to bring us more in line with international values. Otherwise, I don't really understand the logic; these companies should be pushing the number of servings lower -- then consumers would be compelled to buy more of it.
