NVR - I Have to Ask... (food labels)
Why the hell do the nutrition labels on bags of microwave popcorn include first and foremost the stats for the kernels unpopped?
I mean, seriously? Has anyone opened a bag of microwave popcorn and thought, well, screw the microwave, I'll just eat the kernels right out of the bag!
And I'm not hating on kernel eaters - I like crunching on the kernels at the bottom of the popcorn bag myself. But I like doing that AFTER I enjoy a delicious bag of piping hot popped corn.
And what bugs is that the labels often ONLY have the exact numbers for the unpopped kernels. And normally I'd say they were pulling the trick of only accounting for the healthier aspect (ie, Otis Spunkmeyer giving the stats for 1/3 of the muffin - yeah right, like I'm only going to eat 1/3 of the muffin) because the popcorn is infinitely worse for you when you eat it unpopped as far as fat and calories. Hey, genius, maybe that's why I'm POPPING the d**n corn!
And they do this on boxes of macaroni and cheese too, which is even more stupid. You know what, forget cooking this stuff - I prefer crunching on uncooked macaroni noodles and then sprinkling admittedly gross cheese powder on top for that extra garnish. Why waste time boiling the noodles for ten minutes and adding soymilk and Earth Balance to the powder (that way it's half vegan, hee hee). Thank God I know the stats of the uncooked mac-and-cheese so I don't have to worry!
Okay, I'll admit this was pretty pointless, but I just had to rant to someone, and who better than my fellow food-conscious VegWebbers? ;D I guess this can become a Dumb Food Labels thread.
Oh dude! I have often wondered this. It's baffling! :D
I think there are multiple reasons they do this. One is because there are often unpopped kearnels in your bag. So, if you don't eat them (like I don't) you know what they equate to. Secondly, it is easier to measure something in it's dry state. That is how the manufacturer gets it. So, for instance with macaroni, they measure the dry then cook it (with just water which adds nothing) and then they have the nutrition info. Ofetn they have both dry and cooked, but cooked stuff is really variable, so I would trust the dry more.
Does this make any sense? I just went to a vegan cafe and got lots of goodies and am too sleepy to think right now.
Thank you for the "rant!" I enjoyed it immensely, I laughed, nodded, and groaned in sympathy. I love that line: "Yeah right, like I'm only going to eat 1/3 of the muffin". Well but if you had siblings your age you might just get stuck with that one-third of a muffin...measured VERY carefully!
(Ask me how I know this...whistles innocently)
Thank you for the "rant!" I enjoyed it immensely, I laughed, nodded, and groaned in sympathy. I love that line: "Yeah right, like I'm only going to eat 1/3 of the muffin". Well but if you had siblings your age you might just get stuck with that one-third of a muffin...measured VERY carefully!
(Ask me how I know this...whistles innocently)
This rant was so good I popped up some corn and read it again with a snack ;D ;D ;D
I actually wrote to a popcorn company back in high school because of this. I found their label very confusing for this reason and a few others. Their response was that they do it because the FDA says they have to. Haha, not very helpful. They gave me a coupon for free popcorn though!