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    TRAVELGRRL   44,772
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Annoying Calorie Creep

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

I am working hard to track everything I eat, but an annoyance is how calories in foods I eat are "creeping up".

I buy Nature's Own Whitewheat hamburger buns. They USED to be 100 calories. Now they are 110. So when I track, I have to track 1.1 buns.

I bought (for the first time) Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Krunch Bars for my evening treat. Apparently they USED to be 90 calories, because about a zillion people have entered them into the food database at 90 calories. Well guess what? My box says they are 110 calories. I have to enter 1.2 bars into my tracker.

These are just the two examples I've come across TODAY. There are others that elude me just now. How many of us are tracking as usual without realizing we are consuming extra calories due to changing product formulas?

Should food companies be forced to label products: "New and Improved! 20 calories added per serving!"

WHY is this happening, and what to do??

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  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

NANCY- 2/28/2013 10:17AM

    The answer is don't buy processed foods. I know not what you wanted to hear. but companies want profits and if they can hook you... well enough said.
Kudos on the catch... it's great that you are paying attention.
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AJDOVER1 2/27/2013 11:04PM

    That's a good reminder to me to stay away from packaged foods. Manufacturers are under no obligation to make our lives easier (or healthier). Thanks for the heads up!

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MEADSBAY 2/27/2013 10:06PM

    I have noticed some discrepancies but hadn't really connected the dots on this issue!
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BUTTERFLY-1976 2/27/2013 8:58PM

    Well that's not good. Can you add them (with the new nutritional value) into your food tracker?


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CINDYSDAY 2/27/2013 8:54PM

    I hadn't paid attention! I will now! emoticon

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WATERMELLEN 2/27/2013 8:01PM

    Added to that, frequently the Canadian sizes are different: e.g. mini Mars bars are smaller here . . . Grrrr. Guess I'll just stick to non-processed as much as possible. A medium apple is a medium apple!!


Interesting that there is calorie creep up (from 100 to 110 calories) and size creep down (what used to be a 14 is now an 8). Think there's a connection????.

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BOOKAPHILE 2/27/2013 6:03PM

    That doesn't even consider that a manufacturer may make two sizes of the same thing. I occasionally use a sweet and salty nut bar. If I get them from the grocery store they are 1 oz. If I buy them from Costco, they are 1.2 oz. There's not enough difference visually, so unless you look at the label each time, you may record it wrong!

The other thing that bothers me is trying to determine how many calories in something that has no label... something at a restaurant or a friend's home for dinner.

I feel your pain!

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GETFIT2LIVE 2/27/2013 5:17PM

    About all I know to do other than what you're doing is enter my own version with the CORRECT calorie count; worth it if it's something that I use all the time, otherwise not. Very annoying!

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SKIRNIR 2/27/2013 4:32PM

  I have noticed that my foods do different from what a lot of people enter in. OFten times it is sodium too, which I do track, or fiber, etc. CAn be rather annoying. I also wonder if different areas/regions have different nutrition information on the same food sometimes. Like they do a slightly different formula for a different region of the country.

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DACHI9 2/27/2013 4:25PM

    Lordy I know I am, but hadn't really , really thought about it. Boy I need to take this more
seriously!

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TCMAKEUP 2/27/2013 4:17PM

  I haven't even thought about this problem. I will start checking some of my stuff too.

That is really iritating

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