Food labels

Pawnless Endgame · 11 Dec 2019 at 22:58

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

It's our yearly reminder that we'll all die early from obesity, high blood pressure, liver cancer, lung cancer, AIDS, dementia, heart attacks and 'betes type II.

This is what the establishment wants. For us to all be dead by 67, before we draw our pensions.

wesimmo · 11 Dec 2019 at 23:03

R.P.L said:
Animal!

Not least as chocolate bars are about half the size they used to be (I think, unless I've just got bigger and donned the rose-tinted glasses).

No they're definitely more square than rectangle these days.

dragonslayer · 11 Dec 2019 at 23:04

My favourite is x amount of sugar/cals/fat etc per 3 sweets in a pack of Haribo's or some other sweets like someone is only going to eat 3 sweets rofl also bottles of pop is utter BS as well "per 250ml portion 4 portions per bottle" yet most glasses are 500ml so that doesn't really work out

dragonslayer · 11 Dec 2019 at 23:06

R.P.L said:
Animal!

Not least as chocolate bars are about half the size they used to be (I think, unless I've just got bigger and donned the rose-tinted glasses).

They've definitely gotten smaller curly wurly's used to be massive now they're small and the chocolate no longer crumbles!

same with flake it was the best part about eating them lol

wolfie138 · 12 Dec 2019 at 10:02

I read labels. I think the exercise thing would be a good idea, granted it might be a generalistic thing but it would be a good indicator. it is a bit of an ephemeral thing though, if people don't really visualise the work they need to do.

NotAGolf · 12 Dec 2019 at 15:29

I can't see a problem with this. Sure, a lot of people won't bother reading it, or already know it, but I bet there's a decent chunk of people that don't realise how much exercise you'd need to do to burn it off.

I like to think of myself as fairly knowledgeable regarding the fitness/diet stuff, but when I got a smartwatch*, I was suprised by how few calories I burnt on my lunchtime run.

*yes I know they're not amazingly accurate, but it's good as a rough indication.

Martynt74 · 12 Dec 2019 at 15:32

NotAGolf said:
I like to think of myself as fairly knowledgeable regarding the fitness/diet stuff, but when I got a smartwatch*, I was suprised by how few calories I burnt on my lunchtime run.

Yeah it's a depressing realisation to go for a run and then think "oh thats only a mars bar"

Dirk Diggler · 12 Dec 2019 at 16:00

People who are obese won't be doing any regular exercise, therefore the idea is pretty much useless to the target audience. I think the current traffic light system works well when not abused.

builder22 · 12 Dec 2019 at 16:00

I'd rather ditch the Mars Bar than have to go for a run

GilesGuthrie · 12 Dec 2019 at 16:00

Marvt74 said:
Yeah it's a depressing realisation to go for a run and then think "oh thats only a mars bar"

I think that's where the expression "You can't outrun the fork" comes from

Orionaut · 12 Dec 2019 at 16:11

String said:
People who are obese won't be doing any regular exercise, therefore the idea is pretty much useless to the target audience. I think the current traffic light system works well when not abused.

Actually, in most cases, people who are obese typically do rather a lot of excercise.

Next time any of you slim people goes for a walk down the shops, put on a 50Kg back pack first and when you get back think about how much of a workout you have had.

b0rn2sk8 · 12 Dec 2019 at 21:05

Hunger is much more than the biological need for food, its very much a mental thing too. For example idle minds (e.g. bordem) tends to lead people to feel hungry. So many people lead sedentary lives these days just scrolling social media, brain gets bored so they have a chocolate bar and the cycle continues.

If you sit in an office all day you don't really burn many calories, half a can of soup for lunch is probably about right for the average person.

Hotwired · 12 Dec 2019 at 22:01

dragonslayer said:
My favourite is x amount of sugar/cals/fat etc per 3 sweets in a pack of Haribo's or some other sweets like someone is only going to eat 3 sweets rofl also bottles of pop is utter BS as well "per 250ml portion 4 portions per bottle" yet most glasses are 500ml so that doesn't really work out

It tells you what you can already know from the nutritional information but in a different way.

That the sweets are mostly sugar and therefore the amount that would make sense in a good diet is tiny. Ideally, nil.

Ditto for the acidic liquid sugar which is pop.

I don't see value on sticking a third hint that something is junk food.

But the wilfully ignorant will continue to offload blame and it wouldn't surprise me to see manufacturers using more packaging area to make it clear its all on the buyer if they stuff their face.

After all, you can see rotten lungs and huge bold text warnings on cigarette packets and people keep on chugging on those.

ttaskmaster · 13 Dec 2019 at 10:26

b0rn2sk8 said:
Hunger is much more than the biological need for food, its very much a mental thing too.

I doubt many people only ever eat the prescribed portion size on the packet either, though, even the ultra fit types who count every single calorie. People eat because they are hungry, and they keep eating until they feel happy. You can over-eat even on the healthiest foods.