mildlyinfuriating
Counting calories means nothing when 4oz of unseasoned steamed vegetable is somehow twice the calories of seasoned, oily vegetable
Discussion
The comments section thus far are insane. Whether it’s a typo or what, clearly it’s incorrect, I’m not sure why everyone is trying to explain to OP that it’s incorrect. Also the premise of this subreddit is ‘mildly infuriating’ which this is a perfect example of
OP: It's mildly infuriating that these signs are incorrect, because that makes it hard to count calories.
Comments: Um, actually the signs are just incorrect. Duh.
exactly !
OP's headline makes it sound like they believe the signs. That's why people are reacting the way they are.
Comments on this sub are also mildly infuriating
“Here’s a thing that is mildly infuriating to me”
Comments: “OMG is this really that big of a deal to you?”
It's also mildly infuriating because OP could easily just purchase a bag of frozen broccoli that has all the nutrition info on it and steam it at home and not have to worry about incorrect signage. It's also probably a heck of a lot cheaper since Whole Foods charges by weight for their hot bar. As someone who is counting calories I understand the frustration of wanting an accurate sign in this situation but at the same time, as I have no true way of measuring a serving size here, I would just avoid the hot bar all together...
God forbid someone wants already cooked food. The point isn’t what OP “should” be doing by your standards it’s the fact that they messed up the sign. It’s not that deep
When did I ever say OP should do that? I’m offering a solution to a mildly infuriating problem. But ya know, guess that’s not allowed on Reddit.
you could always just not act like a smartass but that's kinda hard to come by on reddit too
Right back at y buddy
Look - Yes there are some people who are just lazy as shit and go to Whole Foods every night and get the hot food and pay out the ass for small servings.
But you're missing the point - Sometimes. . .You're just overwhelmed. And sometimes you're unexpectedly hungry but have a longer shift than usual. And hell sometimes you've just had a really taxing day at work and the idea of cooking even the simplest meal is beyond anything you could reasonably muster.
And in those times? You just want to go somewhere, grab something quick/easy, and go home and veg out.
I posted this at lunch
I apologize for trying to defend your choice to be able to go to Whole Foods for lunch. . .I guess??
I am simply stating I am not the lazy stereotype invoked
The majority of my post was about there being other circumstances where people get this type of food and arent just lazy.
Because the headline OP chose makes it sound like they believe the signs.
It’s a terrible title for the post
What a shambles of a comment section. I'm with you, OP. They clearly fucked up.
There's no way something with sugar and oil is going to have fewer calories per oz than steamed broccoli.
Appreciate it. Being told by a bunch of people I am wrong for a bunch of different reasons when this is really straightforward wrong information makes me feel crazy.
It’s not that you’re wrong, is that you’re making it extreme. The store screwed up and all of a sudden you’re questioning if the earth is round.
THAT'S WHAT THE SUB IS FOR 😭😭😭😭😭 it's called MILDLY infuriating for a reason some of y'all seem to forget that all the time
Yes. Mildly. Not extremely and irrational.
" The calorie counts are wrong so now I'm not sure how much of the information on these papers are correct either "
" EEEEERRRRRMMMMMMMMM EXTREME MUCH????? "
are you a fucking moron on purpose
You have lukewarm IQ. Are you just bored and argue about everything?
Lukewarm would represent an average IQ score, which in this context isn’t what you were going for. Interesting choice of words.
Lol Argue about everything even to insult yourself. Kudos
misinterpreting "lukewarm" to be "average of anything; 100" instead of how it's meant which is "lukewarm temperature; 25-35" is the funniest thing i've read all day
that’s LITERALLY the subreddit my dude
No it’s not. The subreddit is literally mildly. OP is questioning the existence of all truths. How is that mild?
have you ever heard…of hyperbole? it’s a pretty common writing shtick.
honestly not worth your time to interact with them, seems like they're just trolling
I don't even count steamed veggies honestly. 😂
Its the new amazon patinted ultra dense broccoli. Thats more broccoli per broccoli. Dont ask for thw safety data sheet.
Why would a food have an SDS?
You call them steamed despite the fact they're obviously grilled?
Yeahsuh
OMG everyone in this comment section is the definition of insufferable pedantic redditors who miss the entire point.
I'm sorry, OP. I feel for you right now.
Signed, someone without a brain disability who understood your post.
That wasn't pedantic, it was a joke, a direct quote from The Simpsons.
Makes more sense now, thank you for clueing me in.
Y- Uh.. you know, the... One thing I should... Excuse me for one second.
OR...here me out. By mixing those exact ingredients they inadvertently created a mixture with negative calories that REMOVES calories from the food it is added to!
TBH this is more than just mildly infuriating: the calorie counts are way off yet nobody caught that error, so I lose any confidence that the ingredient list and allergens are accurate either. Nobody competent is reviewing the accuracy of the labeling from the look of it.
Calorie counting is a huge pain, and I am constantly having to doublecheck calorie counts in restaurants and the grocery store and on online recipes.
My personal favorite is when restaurants give you a calorie count and then it turns out it’s for, like, a dry burger patty no toppings no bun. No one is eating that. Don’t make me have to scavenger hunt to find out that your 400 calorie burger is actually 1200 calories when you add the cheese and the bun and the special sauce and the mushrooms and the whatever else.
i think the calorie quality between a hamburger bun vs the calories of added lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, etc. is different.
your body taking calories from fruits, vegetables, legumes, etc. is so different than processed breads or other snacks. it confuses me to no end why people will use sweetener alternatives rather than just limiting the sugar in the first place (within medical reason) or zero calorie whatevers vs just limiting processed calories and considering the rest what ur body needs (obviously goes without saying, but within reason).
i think a lot of ppl are missing the forest for the trees here
salad oil which could potentially go unnoticed might be put onto the steamed broccoli after they cook it to add weight and calories.
The steamed broccoli accounts for the sadness you feel while eating it, and the comfort food you intake when you inevitably crack.
Is it related to serving size?
EDIT: it’s not - they both say 4oz
I think the 1 is a typo. So 30 calories for the unseasoned and 70 for the seasoned. Really these signs are rarely all that accurate. You mostly just have to eyeball what's in it and track accordingly. Trying to rely on these is going to be disappointing.
Typo
I stopped counting callories and simple focused on Grams of Carbs/proteins.
I personally blame Amazon for the drop in quality at Whole Foods
Sokka-Haiku by nuttmegganarchist:
I personally blame
Amazon for the drop in
Quality at Whole Foods
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
Amazon is not a person. You can personally blame Jeff Bezos though, if you'd like.
If you are wanting to count calories, accurately, you can't really eat out. You can try, but then run into stuff like this that makes no sense. You're better off cooking at home, that way you know what's added, what's not, and are in control of all aspects of what you eat. That's really the ONLY way to know for sure, especially if you are this upset over broccoli.
Even that isn't accurate. Unless you are using only raw ingredients, packaged food is allowed to be very off in nutrition information.
if you go to McDonald's and order a cheeseburger, 99% of the time it's going to be the same, and that applies to like 90% of the menu. eating out is a pretty safe way to keep your calories in check actually.
Yeah, at a chain like at McDonalds where stuff is spat out in exact quantities. Not at most restaurants or stores
For example, i worked in prepared foods at whole foods for 6 years. A pizza gets 1 cup of cheese. Depending on who is making it, the average pizza gets 2-3 cups of cheese
How can the calories possibly ever be accurate when team members are allowed a certain level of freedom to make it good? Chefs give 0 shits about calorie counts being accurate. Some places are more strict about following the recipes to a T than others. When boss is around stuff gets measured possibly but when boss ain’t around people make stuff how they would at home (which is usually heavy handed on the good stuff)
A lot of the recipes are actually wrong and make zero sense. Like if you followed the recipe it would be 95% lettuce and 5% toppings for example, or way too much seasoning, or all sorts of stuff. Made me think sometimes recipes are made/adjusted to make the numbers look better (weather it’s calories or profits or both). Yet in practice, you make things in such a way so that people want to buy it. Thats also why the same salad at different Whole Foods ends up looking completely different sometimes
Probs incorrect. As someone stated, 30 calories makes more sense. The only case I could see it being 130 is if they added a lot of butter. But not listed?
You must know this isn't right. The 1 is probably just a typo.
No shit it isn't right. The point is that all of the information is questionable if they can't get something as basic as unseasonable vegetable right.
...no, the point is that they just need to proofread their signage. They know the correct information and can likely tell it to you/fix it upon request - they just made a typo on the sign. Lmao.
God forbid anyone use an ounce of common sense when reading information.
If they fuck up this sign, how many others are fucked up?
Statistically roughly 50% of nutritional labels are inaccurate overall by some sources. Up to 20% are permitted by law to be inaccurate.
Idk. Maybe you'd know if you'd have pointed out the obvious mistake to them so that they could post the correct information for other customers and check their other labels for mistakes.
Instead, you... posted it on Reddit for karma? Good job, you really helped solve this issue? /s
I remember glancing through the simply daft sized menu at this place that I work at as a short order grill chef around the time in the UK when restaurants were mandated to inform about calories. It was so long ago I cannot recall the specifics, but there was a couple of tables floating around the kitchen that I got my nose into, printed off websites for average calories, serving size this that and the other. We were falling about laughing at the 'ball park' figures that had been hastily added to this menu.
Now things like the English, Full English, double poached egg's on toast, from a glance I don't remember anything wrong. But this menu was, bonkers honestly. I had to refer to it constantly when some idiot dug through the thing and found some monstrosity that some how got added years ago, I think at one point they just added every bonkers thing some one suggested. These were serving platter sized meals that a table could consume, dense high calorie items, fried eggs everywhere, 12 eggs? 12 sasuage? 12 hash browns? sure, one all the 12's coming right up! 950 calories. The Bender? Full english with curly fries 123 calories, large 250 calories. Yea, try wiping the grease off the calculator screen there buddy, a calculator, has buttons, does maths for you, maths? ok did your mommey know you got a job?
Also for 30 calories, eat some fuckin sauce and spice dude. I hate that people take this health and calorie shit to a tweaker level. is life worth living like this?
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So you're saying OP should eat more of the broccoli with a sugary sauce and oil in the ingredients, and less of the steamed broccoli?
Or, perhaps there has been a mistake on the labels, which is what OP was getting at.
Counting calories becomes a meaningless exercise if the information provided to you is incorrect.
The information is wrong.
Why are Redditors so excited to speak down to fucking strangers?
Not much else going on in their lives so this is their form of exercising control
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You don't put butter on steamed vegetables. They're steamed.
You can see the ingredients list. It's broccoli.
You mean me saying "no shit" to someone else talking down to me? Proving my point
You must know this isn't right. The 1 is probably just a typo.
This is talking down to you? And gives you full access to being rude back?
That broccoli is probably tougher than you are.
Yes, that's talking down.
"You must know" is smug as shit.
"No shit" is a perfectly reasonable response when, yeah bro, it's wrong, that is why I posted it.
Veggies are basically water, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. None of which have calories. It's clearly wrong
All veggies have calories. Though some are very low.
He didn't say that veggies didn't contain calories, read closer. Veggies are basically 4 things, not completely, but mostly those 4 things, which do not contain calories. So they do contain calories, but most of what makes them up doesn't contain calories, which results in them being low calorie foods
And he/she corrected my incorrection, while stating we were both correct!!
Also correct. Again. Well done.
You are also correct. Everyone is correct!
Soluble fiber does have calories btw, so even that is wrong
Correct. We are both correct. Thank you for correcting my correctness.
It was my honor to correct your correctness.
I'm here to correct your correction of their correctness! How dare you sir!
I understand the correction needed correcting. You are incorrect about the SIR..
My apologies Ma'am. You do have really nice thighs for a sir lol
Homegrown and organic thighs!! 🤣
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Holy shit dude
They left a "0" off the Sweet & Spicy Broccoli label.
You think 4oz is 700 calories
If they managed to fit an extra 90 calories into 4oz of steamed broccoli - yes.
did you bring your scale to measure? Otherwise these numbers are pretty useless in general for calorie counting unless you just want to judge cal densities
It is sold by weight.
What’s heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of steel?
you know calories and weight are different things, right?
You know that its calories are listed by weight (specifically /4 oz.) and the hot bar sold by weight, right?
is each individual item sold by weight or your whole plate? All i said was if you're given calories per ounce and you want to count calories you need a scale. and then you're "hurr durrr there's a scale" well thanks dipshit you proved my point while being contrary for no good reason
It's a grocery store hotbar (specifically Whole Foods if I'm not mistaken). You put it in as many containers as you like. You can try to self-soothe all you want but you said a stupid thing and are getting dunked on for it. Delete your comment and move on, dipshit.
That's not hot that works. That's not how any of this works.
Otherwise how would 3 lbs of white rice be less calories than a pound of chicken
it's listed as calories per 4oz serving. so if you wanted to count calories you would need to weigh how much of the food you took and do math to actually know how many calories you just ingested
It's wrong. If the only ingredient is broccoli, 4oz steamed is around 30 calories.
If that's the case, the 1 could just be a typo
Sure. If something as simple as steamed vegetable is wrong, how wrong is everything else?
the sweet and spicy broccoli IS likely wrong, though.
the only way the plain broccoli could possibly be that many calories is if they were boiled in butter or oil and then put out with said butter and oil still there. but since that's not in the ingredients that's clearly not the case.
So both are wrong, likely, if your opinion?
Which would make my point: if one or more of these are wrong, easily shown, how many others are wrong, making counting calories difficult?
oh i agree with your point, i was just adding that i doubt the spicy & sweet broccoli is that low. seems like the 1 went to the wrong food lol.
but yeah, i dunno that i would even trust counting calories at somewhere like this. you'd have to be so meticulous, nevermind the multiple typos. i'd personally avoid.
I'm pretty sure this is the hot bar at whole foods. I get soup there sometimes.
I mean, I could be that low. It’s till over double the calories of the broccoli.
not with that much sugar it's not
I just don’t think it’s that much sugar.
40 calories, the difference presented here, is 10g of sugar. That’s almost 2.5 teaspoons of sugar per 4oz of broccoli. Which would be a very sweet dish.
The broccoli isn’t exactly glistening with a sugar syrup.
It’s not unreasonable that there would be 2tsp/4oz with a few additional calories fr the various fillers.
Sugar has a lot of calories, relatively speaking, but far less than I think you think it is.
call me crazy, but i don't see the broccoli? whatever that is in the picture looks like it's under something else. and unless the broccoli is deep fried, that's not broccoli.
and if it IS deep fried the calories are DEFINITELY wrong.
alao sweet chili sauce averages 60-80 calories per serving, which is 2 tbsp. i highly doubt 4 oz has only half a serving on it. and that's ignoring that there's ALSO teriyaki sauce in it.
Oh, you’re right. The broccoli in question isn’t there.
Either way, yes, a tablespoon of sweet chili sauce can cover more product than you think, definitely 4 measly ounces of broccoli. I do a sweet and spicy chicken veg stir-fry using maeploy sweet chili sauce and a couple tablespoons would be good for a large amount of stir fry.
Like, a can of coke has 140 calories in and a whopping 39g of total sugars.
You really think 4oz of broccoli has the equivalent calories of 12oz of Coca-Cola?
I feel this. When I was aggressively counting calories last time I was trying to lose weight, I was incredibly reliant on pre- packaged food and fast food. Which was kinda wild because those are both pretty unhealthy by common conceptions, but it was almost the only way to get food out that I felt at all confident in the calorie numbers.
McDonald's makes a double cheeseburger the exact same way every time with mass produced everything, I feel reasonably confident that whatever my app says the calories are, they are. No McDonald's cook is going rogue and swapping the patties or buns for something else.
But if I went to the deli down the street where the old guy behind the counter is just winging it, it was really hard to get a good estimate for a sandwich. I could try to find a generic "6 inch Italian sub" in the app, but the calorie values were all over the place.
"healthy/unhealthy food" are such oversimplified, dumb statements. food is food, and everyone's health requires different things. Whatever you need to eat that lets you get to whatever goal/need you want to get to is what is healthy.
(not directing this at you personally or anything, but the obsession with "eating healthy" I think is what kills so many people's attempts at trying to better themselves and I hate it.)
Oh, 100%! The important thing at the time for me was macros being good enough and restricting total calorie intake. The end result was "less healthy" options were good for me because it made hitting that more important goal way easier. Realizing that I needed to focus on what worked well for me more than focusing on the usual healthy eating recommendations was a big step in the right direction.
Anything that may be extra on a McDonald's burger is insignificant, like lettuce. That being said, I tended to be a bit rogue at Taco Bell, putting slightly more beef and cheese on the tacos.
As far as counting, making your own food is a reliable way to count calories/macros. Just requires more work. You can also build your own sub in the app, but once again, it requires work and guessing still.
Yeah, I was talking about eating out specifically. I did a decent amount of meal prep, too. And yeah, building a sandwich or whatever in the app is an option, it's just kinda a pain in the as lol.
I've thought about building a sandwich/meal and saving it so I can choose it quickly at future dates, but I don't really seem to eat the same thing very regularly.
I did that for regular recipes that we made somewhat regularly. It helped a lot, but wasn't really worth it for day to day stuff.
I have done it. Just once. Never again.
They might have got them switched.
No, I would reckon that the 1 is a typo and the sweet & spicy is more than double the steamed.
One of the ingredients listed several times is sugar. There might be wayy more sugar than you can imagine - Not to push aside the “how can you believe any of it” concerns, because it’s hard to believe that all markings are off
yup. sugar is basically the second ingredient.
It's definitely mildly infuriating that you can't trust either of those signs. I use Noom for calorie tracking, but there are lots of apps that are more reliable than these signs.
It's just a typoed 1. It doesn't make it harder to do because the dish is simple.
Unfortunately restaurant calories are hard to count generally, I'd just guesstimate.
I have this same issue as a vegetarian when a place lists Parmesan as vegetarian and it's not. What about the other cheeses? What about the cheesecake? If you got one thing wrong, it could be an iceberg of issues... it really puts me off!
I'm a vegetarian. Isn't cheese vegetarian but not vegan?
It depends if it contains rennet or not which is made from a calf's stomach. This is normally in parmesan and manchego but can be in other cheeses too
It's worth noting that non-animal rennet produced from bacterial fermentation has been available for decades and is used in the bulk of cheese production, it's just that some traditional protected cheeses require the use of traditional calf rennet.
Not who you responded to, but TIL, thanks!
You're welcome. ;)
No, many cheeses have rennet (derived from calf stomach). Properly made Parmesan is one of them. But many restaurants don't get it.
Sorry for making your day worse on the food labelling front! 😅
Do you know that the calves are killed regardless of whether or not the rennet is harvested out of their bodies? Its such a weird hill to fight/die on.
For health it makes no impact, for ethics it doesn't even make a scratch. If you don't want animals to suffer for your food you would not be vegetarian, you would lose 5 letters.
Ethics aren't about making a scratch.
Ethics are about what you do when nobody is watching. It's the core expression of your actual value system. Not about what you want to believe, or pretend to believe, or claim to want, or wish you could support. They're about what you actually do, when push comes to shove.
So if you don't want to eat mammals, calves' rennet is absolutely a hill to die on.
Especially for people who don't eat cow for religious reasons.
Not eating them but having them called is very ethical yes. Good argument.
That they are culled already doesn’t matter.
You don’t know why this person doesn’t want to eat rennet. You assume it’s because they care about the calves, but they might have a religious prohibition against eating cows and don’t really care about the lives of the animals.
Point being that ethics aren’t result based. If you have an ethical prohibition against eating cow, rennet is absolutely a hill to die on.
Ethics aren’t something you follow when it’s convenient and don’t mind breaking when the impact is small. They’re something you try to uphold no matter what, even when not doing so is easier.
Alright man
Whatever you say is not going to change a dietary habit of 30+ years. The internet doesn't work like that. I don't care to get into any ethical debate
You do you, I'll do me.
I'll do you.
Everyone does!
When I saw the 130 calories for some broccoli I already knew it was a typo. Ain’t no way.
Labels on packaging are accurate. Calories estimated by an underpaid restorant help are... less accurate
Labels on packaging are legally allowed to be significantly inaccurate
Maybe in your country, not in the EU
The EU allows calorie rounding too. Not as much as in the US but it's still used.
Those variations are not huge and follow practical limitations on product variation and measurement error margin.
https://food.ec.europa.eu/document/download/0f159c23-d829-4f99-b151-77ff97b73e7b_en?filename=labelling_nutrition-vitamins_minerals-guidance_tolerances_summary_table_012013_en.pdf
It looks like some random catererbprinting labels for one particular site. One thing having a typo doesn't really lead to the conclusion that calories everywhere are wrong. And they are much less likely to be wrong when it's a massive international food company selling in supermarkets than with caterers.
Nah, that’s 100% a Whole Foods. Sorry about your hypothesis.
It is
I’ve worked in the food industry for 10+ years. Nutrition labels are often very wrong, but better than nothing.
I would not trust the calories on a random sign for my diet. Most things will be wrong and not checked carefully. Use an app my fitness pal and input your food and weight of the food on there.
An app has no idea how a place prepared something
Ultimately it's not going to make that much of a difference. The errors will get averaged out over time anyway.
make your own food if a few calories matters that much. adding a bit or oil or some extra fat is easy to account for in the app and over count the calories.
Holy shit man
Then don't eat out if it bothers you. It's easy to just track an extra teaspoon of oil and a few extra carbs.
Holy shit man
Your right on the count, my guess would be the use of butter to get it that high.
Dang. That sounds mildly infuriating.