Peanut Butter Jelly Time

It'ssss peanut butter jelly time...



Hahaha, justttt kidding.

Anyway, this is a RANT. A rant about serving size, caloric density, and deceptive packaging. RANT. So, think what you wish.

I rarely go without having peanut butter 1-3 times per week. It is so delicious that I will willingly "trade-off" more food quantity for some PB, because PB is high fat and calorie. So, I traveled these past two weekend and part of this travel was a long-ish drive. I made some of Sarah's breakfast cookies and took them with me because...well, gas station snacks are less than ideal! As per her suggestion of adding a nut butter to the top, I went with it. To more easily transport peanut butter, I went after some single serving containers. I found these things called Jif to Go.


This homegirl is down with portable peanut butter. Holla (if only it came in crunchy?:-P)

So, I snapped a photo for you using my blackberry so you can see , next to my sharpie marker, exactly how big these cups are.



Looks reasonable, right? The packaging reads "6 single cups" as part of the hook. So, what would most normal people think? They give it to me in these cute little cups that are "great for dipping" (per the package), so I must be able to consume the entire cup and be cool with that! Pre-op, I would have been happily dipping my carrots away, consuming the whole cup, and saying pppssshhhhawww to the cookies I was passing on.

Now, I, of course, flipped the package over to look at the nutrition facts. There were two separate columns. Suffice it to say, I was shocked when I read the column for one serving (which I assumed based on the packaging was one whole cup) said 195 calories and 16g of fat (standard for a serving PB, this is why I was cautioned at its caloric density). The serving size was listed in ounces (who really thinks of peanut butter in anything other than tablespoons?!) and it was convolutedly referring to half of the cup. Why not just write 1/2 of "single cup"? I am envisioning consumer confusion and apathy abounding! I think this packaging leads people to believe that the cup is a serving...it seems really misleading there...even though the packaging doesn't say "single SERVING cup".

So, you go through and dip your carrots, pretzels, or apples in this whole peanut butter cup. You will have consumed 390 cal and 32g of fat. My eyes just about popped out of my skull. I'm not a calorie counter, but I AM very careful with things like nuts and cheeses...don't want to get too crazy! I myself could easily consume this amount of peanut butter (might make me uncomfortable...all of the fat) and I have a 6-8 oz. stomach. I can imagine busy moms and dads dropping these into their kids lunches as a "healthy" snack. How would the child know not to consume the whole creamy and delicious pack?

They say that low-fat diets aren't going to lead to any significant weight loss, which I agree with, but consuming 400 cal worth of peanut butter in one sitting...for an average person...is a bit much. If you're eating it with pretzels or an apple, tack on at least 100 additional cal, carrots 50. A "snack" at 500 cal? NOT ideal.

You had to be on your game and NOT a passive food consumer to notice this. That's what made me mad! Everyone around me is in such a hurry all of the time they may fail to notice that these are NOT single SERVING cups, rather a means to package 200% serving sizes into portable packages.

So, WTF, Jif? Why couldn't you just put it in a g*d d*mned single serving container and actually HELP the American public with our serving size issues instead of further exacerbating the problem on a particularly calorie laden food?