Tuesday 7 April 2009

How gullible do "they" think we are?

Every once in a while something will just hit me as totally ridiculous and today I'm going to share this with y'all.

Picture this - a gooey, sugary cheese danish in its clear plastic wrapper. The icing on it oozes sweetness that practically threatens to burst through the wrapping and attach itself directly to your thighs. It screams hyperglycemia as it tempts you in Alice in Wonderland Eat Me fashion. Do you honestly need to read anything on the packaging to know what this confection is going to do to your body?

Well, apparently, the distributors of said sugar overload feel that they need to taunt you in some way that actually makes you think it's okay to eat the killer danish. Yep, just in case you needed that little extra twist of the arm, here it is...0 grams transfat. Wow! If I hadn't known that, I might have reached for an apple or banana. But, hey, if there's no transfat, I'll bet it's good for me!

facepalm

This is why the general public buys things that aren't good for them but is deluded into thinking that it's okay.

This particular cheese danish has the following (because I read the nutrition label - and I use the term loosely): 390 calories - 140 of them from fat; 56 carbs; 16g fat. And those are just the highlights.

Hmm...a little research will tell you that even on an 1800 calorie diet, you've just about consumed most of one meal with this little gem. If you're actually dieting, you've definitely shot an entire meal in one fell swoop.

Carbs - did you know that the RDA is 130 grams a day? And this one product has about half of that - oooh, that's healthful.

Now about those fats. Boy am I glad there are no transfats in said danish. Why? Because there are 16grams of fat still there; 140 calories of fat are still lurking somewhere. Using the example of an average 1800 calorie diet, the recommended grams of fat each day that you should be consuming is somewhere between 20% and 35% - from 40 to 70 grams of fat. Do you really want to use up somewhere between 23 to 40% of your allowable fats for the day in about a half dozen bites of sugary sweetness, all the while deluding yourself by repeating the mantra "it has no transfats; it has no transfats; ad infinitum"???

Sorry, folks, but I'm from the old school where you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. If it's bad for you, accept it and either take the plunge or pass on by. But, for heaven's sake, don't let the marketing people try to make idiots of us by touting their plaudits of no trans fats whilst sending us into glucose hell.

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