January 24th, 2018

Yesterday was a pretty good day for all that I was madly busy every moment and it was pouring rain at the start. I love a day that is just inherently good.  But by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when I had not yet had time to eat (seriously) I was getting pretty hungry.    So as I drove near the grocery store, I decided to stop in and buy a  treat for myself.  Celebration of such a good day, as it were.  Photographic evidence above.

​I rarely eat ice cream.   For whatever reason, my body does not process it well.  I never eat ice cream when we vacation, for instance, or if I need to be somewhere in short order.  Nope, I only eat ice cream in the safety of my own home when I have no place to go and nothing else to do.   Home,  where we have not one, but two working bathrooms.   Despite it's appalling affect of me, I love ice cream.  I love the texture, the flavor, the variety!  And I only eat the good stuff.  If I am going to have this rare and wonderful treat, it will be the real deal. Nothing low fat, or with substitute sugar or with anything remotely healthy in it.  And in fact, in a perverse act of rebellion, I gravitate toward the absolute worst choices in ice cream.  Basically the more unhealthy it is for me, the more likely I am to chose it.

​So, at the end of my long day, I nestled my oh so hungry self onto the sofa with a book, a spoon, a napkin and my treat.  Then for some reason, I picked it up the container backwards which meant the ingredients list was immediately visible as was the nutritional (hah!) information.  And that's when I saw  it: 

This little pint container of Ben & Jerry's finest is supposedly 4 servings.  What?  How can that possibly be true?  Out of curiosity I pulled out my measuring cup to see how big a 1/2 cup would be.  Hint:  It's not very big.  Tim could eat it in one bite.  I tend to savour  my food and while it would be multiple bites for me, as a whole, it would not be a very satisfying treat.

​Fascinated now, I started reading the serving sizes on all sorts of things in my pantry and fridge.   We have a Snack Factory brand bag of Pretzel Crisps in the pantry.  The bag  which is very small and at least half of it is air, weights 7.2 ounces.  A serving size is one ounce.  One Ounce! 

​There was also a package of Lancer Toast Chee Crackers in the pantry.  It was leftover Hurricane food.  If you aren't familiar with the name of this particular "food", and I use the term loosely, it's those little cellophane wrapped packaged of six square orange cheese crackers sandwiches that have peanut butter in the middle.  Turns out that one package is three servings.  That means each serving is two cracker sandwiches.  Two!  Who are you serving these to,  Elves? Hummingbirds?

​It's not just junk food that has crazy serving sizes.  In our  fridge is a bag of green beans. Fresh veggies. Yummmm!  I love 'em steamed until they are just fork tender.  Servings size turns out to be 7 beans. Seven Beans! That is insane.  I not only can eat an entire can of green beans by myself, I often have turned one 14.5 oz. can into my lunch or dinner.  Turns out that average can of beans is 3 1/2 servings.  Woe unto the 1/2 person who gets that last serving.   Wow!

​Did you know that a serving of chicken is supposed to be the size of a package of playing cards?  Or that a serving of pasta should be half the size of a baseball. Nothing like walking away from the dinner table hungry.    What are these people thinking?   I know what I'm thinking.  I'm thinking they are wrong. 

​Attention all you superhealthy nutritional information label writing people.  You are hereby notified that the actual serving size of a pint of Ben & Jerry's is one.  One serving.  All you need is the pint and napkin and spoon.  Further evidence to follow:
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And if I  suffer later for the eating of it, that's on me.  I'm just talking accuracy here. One pint, one serving. The End.