Guest blog by sleepyhead Ever been to Whole Foods to get some cooked food only to be staring at huge containers?
Well according to
The New York Sun, the big containers are making people buy bigger portions, thus causing people to gain weight.
I haven’t had that problem, but I’ve noticed people getting more just to fill up the containers.
I’ve actually gone to the bakery to ask for smaller containers or just used the soup containers.
I don’t want to carry around a huge container (being green I guess) with a small dish and some rice.
For the
Whole Foods company, I guess it makes sense to have people buy more, which equals more profits, but they’re supposed to be about healthy eating and all, so shouldn't they be fixing this problem?
Hopefully they’ll start to add smaller containers at Whole Foods because I do like some of the cooked food they serve.
Occasionally after the gym, I like to stop by and get a quick bite.
Have you noticed this trend at Whole Foods or other markets that serve hot food? If Whole Foods is all about healthy living, why are they leaving out huge containers for people to stuff themselves with?
healthkicker.com
Comments (23)
That must be an American thing. At the Whole Foods stores around here, small containers are offered along with the larger ones.
Why can't someone eat what they want out of the large container and then save the rest for another meal?
@Blue_Dragon_Designs@xanga - Because they just don't, I guess. No self control.... sad.
THEY are not making people fat. They are not forcing the customer to be a glutton and eat every little bit out of the large container. It's called self-control, and sadly, a lot of people have none. (I'm not talking down at people, I've been there before too).
Are you kidding? Tell me you are kidding. Are you saying we as consumers are incapable of controlling our own portions? Please, let's pass legislation to protect us from big containers! They should HAVE to give us smaller containers so we can eat less.
Let's take an average container of heat and serve soup from say Campells.
That ready to eat container, indeed ALL cans of soup, prepared or condensed are actually TWO servings!
It's true! Almost all bags of potato chips are "two" servings. A 16 ounce bottle of softdrink, "two" servings. You almost have to view all labeling as misleading if you are counting on it to protect you.
Serious, wanna be trim? eat less. Do not ask someone to make it any easier for you, or YOU will make it HARDER for me to pig out when I know and WANT to.
This "help us save us take us away" attitude makes me very angry. Ya'll need to get real about life.
I have noticed this. For lunch I usually walk down to Whole Foods to get something to eat because it is just a couple blocks from my school. I thought it was kind of weird that they had such big containers when they are all about eating healthy.
The Whole Foods I've been to have 3 sizes of containers for their food usually? Small, med, & large, and the small is actually a small.
And honestly, servings sizes aren't that hard. 1 serving is usually about the size of your fist/palm.
um.. they probably do it as a courtesy so you don't have a bunch of small containers if you want more than the small ones hold. and quite honestly.. just because it's sold in bigger containers, it doesn't mean the person has to eat it all right then and there. the person, if really on a diet, has the power to control how much they eat, and when they eat it.
for instance, i sometimes go out for dinner with friends and purposely order way more than i normally would eat. i eat as much as i can, and get the rest saved for to-go-box for dinner or lunch the next day.
this topic lies on the whole mcdonalds super-size fries ordeal. i LOVED it when they sold it like that, and i loved it even more when they offered fries in bucket form. their fries, in their greasy, meat-flavored oil form.. are so delicious that i would love to have a couple of buckets at my disposal. but no.. i can't have that now. now i have to spend more to get the same amount of fries, because of some fatass mother fucker out there couldn't say "NO" when asked if they wanted to supersize, and now i have to pay for 2 larges to get my fries.
i wanna say that Whole Paycheck has given the high benefit of the doubt that their customers are smart and healthy indivudals and will know how to portion out their food, and by doing so, they're providing them a service of getting more for paying not as much.
but obviously, if you think that they're out to make people fatter, then maybe you shouldn't be shopping at a better food quality brand and just shop at the regular stores instead. you'll end up spending just about the same anyhow.
It's not Whole Foods' problem. It's the customers for overeating their appropriate portion. You can always eat a little bit and then save the rest for later. If they are calorie conscious, then they should find out how many calories are in the food they are about to buy. Otherwise, no, it's not Whole Foods' problem. All they are doing is selling food (which is what they are suppose to do).
Personally, the only time that I've ever filled up the containers they give you is when I'm at the salad bar.... and I don't think that mushrooms and greens are going to make me fat.....well, fatter.
I think it's up to US to control ourselves. You really have to be pretty slow to not know that those containers are HUGE. They clearly are more than one serving size.
I've never been to Whole Foods before. I think it'd be better if they would make varying sizes of containers, though. That way the people can find the perfect size for what they want to get. It's probably wasting food, because if they get a large container, fill it all the way up --- A lot of that probably won't be eaten. In reverse, if they fill it up only a little, that's wasting the material to make the container.
What's next? Blaming Costco for offering items in bulk?
"But I don't want a whole pallet of cheese puffs!" *whines*
This post is stupid. Those "huge" containers are there for the consumer to get more and make it last longer. Or perhaps fill it up and take it home for their family to share.
I'm a frequent shopper at Whole Foods and whoever thought this one up needs to just go buy a $5 salad at McDonalds.
Whole foods doesnt promote healthy foods, they promote "organic" foods. I never go there to eat because it's way too expensive for my tastes. I prefer my $5 footlong.
That sounds pretty ironic, if you think about it. :-\ Whole foods is supposed to store heathy stuff, right?
Health food does tend to come in huge containers------even those Bolthouse Foods smoothies come in bottles that I usually can't polish off at one time. I think it's the fact that, sometimes, health foods are more calorie-laden than regular stuff or that we could be eating too much in one sitting.....when I decided to cut back on frozen foods and soda a few months ago, I replaced them with fruits and smoothies and I picked up a few pounds.
there is more to health than weight. i'm surprised that no-one has already made this point. gaining weight is not in itself unhealthy. it is sometimes positively healthy. but if people are buying more just to fill the containers, they surely shouldn't complain about it? you only have to buy as much as you want. as my mother always says, there is no point in being a human dustbin, eg. eating more than you want, need or can enjoy just because you have paid for it.
If the customer comes in knowing what they want, and leaves with more food than they should entirely because they are holding a larger container in their hand... well, their fault, in my opinion.
Whole foods generally sells pretty healthy food, but if people overindulge, they overindulge.
Self. Control.
This argument is no different than the girls who sued McDonalds for making them fat. Portion control is not a corporation's responsibility. Do large containers make it easier to eat more than you should? Absolutely. None the less, it comes down to personal responsibility.
who cares what size the container is; if you're looking to stay healthy, you:
a) do NOT buy prepared foods at Whole Foods in the first place--pretty much all of the foods there are seriously fattening and chock full of oils.
or
b) don't fill up the container!!!
<8
I hate how everyone is trying to lose weight now days. Just keep it to yourself! 2/3 of the people said their New Years resolution was to either lose weight or eat better.
@LadyLibellule@xanga - ROFL. That's what I was going to say.
It just seems like at the end of the day, its all about the bottom line and turning a profit, customer health means nothing compared to turning a nice profit.