One of my fitness friends (we'll call him "Max") and I joke around about what we call "Marketing STDs" -- Sneaky, Tricky, and/or Deceptive marketing techniques used by delightful companies out there who will go to just about any lengths they are legally allowed in order to reach their sales figures. My friend and I will occasionally share stories with one another about things we've seen or witnessed other people fall prey to, and assign scientific names to the mSTD that has been presented. We are, after all, dweebus geeks who find humor in Latinizing modern English. ;)
I hate marketing. I understand it is necessary and I am fascinated by the consumer psychology behind it, but at the end of the day, the purpose of most for-profit businesses is to make a profit (duh!), which means they need volume in their sales, which means they will do what they need to do to sell to as many people as possible. All of this processed crap "diet" food that is labeled as "healthy", "all natural", "low-fat", etc etc etc is like someone trying to sell moonshine at an AA meeting. I don't like anything about it, particularly since I bought into it for some TEN YEARS before I learned about clean eating and adopted the lifestyle.
This particular example I'm about to show is a case of confusing marketing. It requires people to do math, which, believe it or not, many people do not like to do. Especially dieters who are so desperate to find foods that resemble the ones they used to love because they can't bear to let it go. No one said quitting cold turkey was fun, but there comes a point in time when you have to decide whether you're going to take a hard look at what you're putting in your body, or you're going to look the other way and continue to live in Make Believe Land and wonder why you are "eating right" and "exercising" and still not losing weight.
My esteemed colleagues, allow me to introduce our first Marketing STD: A case of Labelus Confusionus. It's generic name is label confusion, and this microwaveable popcorn product is INFECTED. :D
A friend of mine chows down on this all the time. She is a serial dieter who constantly bemoans her inability to lose weight despite a solid diet of diet food, tons of cardio (translation: 30 minutes on the elliptical at level 2) and a bit of a heavy drinking problem (but that's another story). I kindly asked her if she'd ever thought of a more natural substitute, such as air-popped popcorn, as she was explaining to me all the heath benefits of what she was eating for only "15 calories in the whole bag!"
Now before you go burning down my door, please know that I'm not hating on popcorn. It is a high protein, high fiber snack that is filling and a lot better for you than potato chips. The problem is when you start adding artificial crap into like "Butter Flavoring" and preservatives, but we'll save that for another mSTD post. Another problem is when you aren't accustomed to reading labels and truly, genuinely think there are only 15 calories in a whole bag of popcorn.
When I got to work, I found the same product in our cupboards so I checked out the nutrition label, and here's what I saw:
More specifically, check the label:
I don't blame my friend. Most people who are not totally freakish about reading their labels, will typically just look at the basic nutrition facts. Many more people will also look to see how many servings are in the container at hand. But I won't lie -- if you really wanted to compute just what exactly is in a bag of this popcorn, it can get a little sticky.
My friend's claim that there are "Only 15 calories in a bag!" is partly true -- there are 15 calories. But "only"? No way, jose. There are 15 calories in one cup of the popcorn once it's been popped. It's time to do some math to see just what the nutrient content is of this product.
We can see that the serving size is EITHER 2 tbsp un-popped kernels, or 1 cup of popped popcorn. BUT---we can see from the very top of the label that 2 tbsp of un-popped kernels equates to actually FIVE (5) cups of un-popped popcorn. And of those 2 tbsp of un-popped kernels, there are 3 servings of them in one bag. And then since there are 3 bags in a box, there are 9 servings of 2-tbsp servings in the whole box (3 in a bag * 3 bags in a box)
So what does this mean? Three 2-tbsp servings of un-popped kernels = 6 tbsp total of un-popped kernels. If 2 tbsp = 5 cups popped, then the whole bag has 15 cups of popped popcorn. Now let's relate that back to the nutrition facts. Ignore the 2 tbsp statistics, and let's just look at the nutrition facts of the ONE cup of popped popcorn:
We know the calories for 1 cup of popped popcorn are 15, but how did we figure out those other quantities? And why are there asterisks for Fat and Saturated Fat? Well, I'll tell you why. They explain it all in the label's "FINE PRINT". Apologies for the poor quality of the photo (compliments of the iPhone 5, whose camera SUCKS), but check out this small paragraph:
If you can't read it, it says "Amount [of fat] in un-popped popcorn [is 2g]. As popped, 1 cup provides 0g total fat..." It also tells us the amount of sodium, carbs, protein and fiber in one cup of popped popcorn. My friend, who thought she was eating a fat free snack with only 15 calories in the whole bag, was veeeerry wrong. As long as there is less than half a gram of fat, the label can legally say 0g, or 0%. If 2-tbsp of unpopped kernels version have 2g of fat per serving, do you think that fat magically vanishes in the microwaving process? Lies! Since 2 tbsp unpopped kernels = 5 cups popped, then 1 cup popped would have 2g/5 servings = 0.4g fat. Less than half a gram = 0g of fat in the marketing world. In statistics, we call this a "rounding error".
On a diet based off of 2,000 calories, this equates to a meager 0.6% of your daily intake. Not much, right? But say you are like my friend, who eats the entire bag in one sitting. Let's take what we know about 2 tbsp of unpopped kernels and multiply it by 3, which is how many servings there are in a bag:
Total Nutrition Facts:
The percentages assigned were taken from the FDA's "Recommended Daily Allowance" ("RDA") of food based on a 2,000 calorie diet. So, if you are eating a diet higher in protein and lower in carbs, your daily intake percentages would be much different than the above. Further, it's important to note that corn is not a complete protein. In order for a protein to be "complete", it must contain a proper proportion of the 9 essential amino acids required by the human body for it's dietary needs. Corn is markedly low in Trytophan and Lysine.
Otherwise, as I've said, popcorn is a relatively healthy snack, especially if you eat the air-popped kind that you make yourself, which does not include saturated oils, TBHQ preservatives, artificial flavors and "added colors", as this product does. But you can see how daunting math-oriented labels can be for a hungry dieter looking for a cheap thrill. My friend thought there were only 15 calories in a whole, "fat-free" bag. She was a little shocked to know there were about 350 calories and almost 10% of her intake of fat instead!
Labulus Confusionus: YOU'VE BEEN FOREWARNED.
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