Today, I took my two cousins and their friends to a Baskin Robbins for a little-after swim treat. I don't think I was really expecting anything from them other than delicious, creamy, probably fattening ice cream.
But while I was struggling over the phrase "Cabana Berry Banana", I noticed something, Baskin Robbins now has little nutritional factoid labels on all their ice cream flavors. Most of the ice creams were in the 400 calorie range, with some of the fat-free flavors only 200 calories.
This isn't some big shock to me- I've always known that ice-cream is chock full of calories- I wasn't born yesterday, or in a barn, or whatever the saying is. I'd just never thought I'd see an ice cream place that made their nutritional information readily available for all patrons to see. In most of the ice cream stores we have back home (like Coldstone Creamery and Gofer Ice Cream) just offer you choices, and you'd probably need to ask for a nutritional fact sheet if you wanted to know anything pertaining to your health.
So I went back in my head to my old memories of my weirdly serious health teacher (she opened parenting night telling everyone's parents "Your child has a 1 in 4 chance of having an STD. DID YOU KNOW THIS?!?".) droning on about calories, and I remember her saying that the average person needs about
1500-2000 calories per day.
I tried doing some math in my head:
So if I need about 2000 calories, and I'm eating 400 of them, I'll have 1600 left. And for my meals.. But that's where I got stuck. I have no clue how many calories I'm eating at meal times. 500? 600?
700?
I'm not a crazy health nut, and I'm not obsessing over my caloric intake. I just want to know.. would you rather know the nutritional information of all the food you're eating? Or do you just not care?
And more importantly, do you even watch your caloric intake in the first place?
Comments (90)
Not really. I usually don't even know how much calories I take in.
"Your child has a 1 in 4 chance of having an STD." Like 19 of the people in the comment section so far have STDs. Ha, sucks to be them.
i would love to know the calorie content of what i'm eating. for someone of my size, if i were to eat 1500-2000 calories a day, i would be fat. i wouldn't keep track of the calories so much, but just knowing how many is in what i'm eating would be helpful enough. like, i would never eat something (or i would try not to) that's over 400 calories. that's just too much in one sitting. the only problem with calorie counting is that sometimes companies try to trick you with serving sizes. like if you buy one of those personal size ice creams by blue bunny, a serving size is only half of it. so if you eat the whole thing (and who wouldn't if it's personal) than you're eating twice as many calories as you thought.
I count calories. My therapist advised me to keep a food diary years ago when I was recovering from an eating disorder which spiralled into compulsive overeating. It helps me stay accountable so I'm not crazy under or over eating.
I feel crazy if I don't know exactly how many calories I've eaten. I wish more places gave nutritional value like that.
i don't care to be honest.the whole idea is just silly to me. i live off of bread, pasta, and potatoes (and anything unhealthy) without a care in the world, and i'm happiest that way. i only live once, i'm going to enjoy it, even if that means i die early from a heart attack because i ate too many big macs.
Yes i do and I also care what I am eating.
not at all.. haha
I actually do care about how many calories I'm eating, but not as other people would. I only care when I eat too little, not when I eat too much. I always try to eat foods with the most calories available. When I haven't had enough calories in a day, I go to the fridge and attempt to stuff my face. I have a little problem in which I can't seem to gain weight no matter how unhealthy I eat (and how many McDonalds meals I have per week), I still look like I'm dying from or have an eating disorder. One time I even considered drinking at least one McDonald's triple thick strawberry milk shake (1110 calories for a 32 oz. cup) per day to gain weight..
I count, but I've gotten so good at it that I can remember the basic amount in common foods so I don't look like a complete nut checking out the package of everything I eat. I also buy a lot of fresh produce and I don't count their calories because they are so nutritionally dense (except starches like bananas which are like 150 each). I do it the most at the grocery store, and that doesn't really look weird. When I go out to eat I just remember what I've eaten and look it up later.
I think it's a great thing they have introduced that, the problem is people don't care. They don't realise how much they're eating, and is a major factor of why obesity is such a large problem. I count my calories, but on days I don't it really adds up and is quite shocking. Treats are fine as long as people do realise and care about what they're eating.
I like when places tell you the calories in the foods they offer, it makes ordering so much less stressful for me.
yes
I do count my calories because it's the little bites here and there that really add up. My boyfriend started counting calories last year and found the he was ingesting over 4,000 calories (a lot of it was the flavored coffees from Starbucks everyday) and so he started counting calories and lost 50 lbs! I count to keep me on track and it helps me eat healthier because for example, salad and veggies are low in calories.
I count calories. It's not a problem with me (probably goes hand-in-hand with my quasi-OCD), and I like to be informed about what I'm eating. Some extremely fatty foods aren't very filling and don't have much in flavour or experience to justify the experience, and I judge whether or not it's worth eating.
I greatly appreciate the California calorie law.
Besides, there's scientific research (articles in LA Times and Scientific American lately) that's shown that lab animals on restricted-calorie diets have lived longer, looked younger, and suffered fewer age-related diseases (such as cancer and diabetes).
Yes, I count my calories and I eat completely healthy. I do occassionally have icecream and I check the calories in it so I don't eat too much (=