Year 2, Day 153: Beef Jerky Returns

Today a co-worker received a package of Buffalo Bill's beef jerky, which to my mind, is the greatest beef jerky on the face of the planet. Available from http://www.choochoorsnacks.com. This co-worker came across the product from an unsolicited email (read: beef jerky from spam) and decided to give it a try. During a week he was off to buy his house, another co-worker and I decided to order all of the other known beef jerkies we could to try them and find a better one. We could not. Most people recoil from the though of beef jerky, and for good reason. It is often a combination of the worst flavors and textures of the beef-eating experience: too chewy, too salty and often, too sweet, which is a cover up for a poor quality of meat. This jerky just seems to have it in the right combination. It's also VERY SoBe friendly—one 7" stick is 35 calories, with less than 1g of carbs, negligible sugars or anything else problematic. Predictably, it's high in sodium (327g per stick), but that's to be expected. It also has 7g of protein, making it a great on the go snack. One of the reasons we don't get it too much is that we often can't stop eating the strips until the whole bag is gone.

Breakfast
1 Cup Heritage Flakes/Kashi Go Lean
Strawberries
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Green Tea

Snack
12 oz. Coffee
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheese
5 Sticks Beef Jerky
1 stick celery

Lunch: Russo's $5.12
Red leaf, red onion, red pepper
broccoli, mushrooms, chicken, feta
balsamic vinegar

Dinner
Emily's Tuna
with Leeks, Scallions, Peppers & Onions

After Dinner/Neighbor's House
a few raspberries, blackberries, blueberries
one spare rib with FIRE hot sauce
a little bit of Brighams ice cream

EATING WELL; New Serving Sizes: Confusion in Fat City
By MARIAN BURROS Published: May 10, 2000

Now that the nutrition police of the 1980's and 90's have been silenced, Americans are going hog wild, eating more food than ever and eating it in larger quantities. Food manufacturers are happily encouraging the eating binge by providing single-serving packages that are often twice as big as they used to be. It's an easy way to sell more food and make more money.

This has made it extremely difficult for that small percentage of shoppers who rely on nutrition labeling to sort out calories and portion sizes. The companies are doing nothing illegal. The Food and Drug Administration has given them permission.

Planters Honey Roasted Peanuts illustrates the point. The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which sets serving sizes for all food, says that a single serving of peanuts is 28 grams, about an ounce. But it also says that a single serving can be up to 60 grams, or two ounces. So if you buy a package of peanuts that contains 56 grams, or about two ounces, the label says it is a single serving; that serving contains 310 calories. But if the package weighs more than 60 grams, under the law a single serving has to be considered one ounce. On a three-ounce package, or 84 grams, the nutrition label says it contains three servings, and each serving contains 140 calories.

According to Ann Smith, a spokeswoman for Nabisco, which owns Planters, the different sizes ''fill consumer needs and demands for a lunchbox or single serving, and the three-ounce package is one you put in your purse or gym bag to share with someone else.'' But do you?

Who is going to take the time to figure out the difference in calories among the various Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? One supermarket carried six different packages and four different calorie counts. In packages of Reese's snack size, two pieces equal a serving and contain 190 calories. In Reese's Miniatures, a serving equals five pieces and contains 210 calories. In ReeseSticks, a serving is a whole package and contains 230 calories. In Reese's six-pack, one serving is one package and contains 250 calories.

For the full article:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9905E2DB1138F933A25756C0A9669C8B63