Should your supermarket receipt count calories?

(Ross) #1

Should your supermarket receipt count calories?

According to Matthew Cole – a health expert who is working alongside the man behind the idea, creative designer Hayden Peek – receipts are a reliable indicator of a person’s dietary habits over time and, like labelling in supermarkets and on menus, could help us make healthier choices. But does such labelling really work? Research shows that consumers spend only six seconds looking at a product before buying it and can find labels confusing due to information overload. Meanwhile, obesity levels continue to rise: according to Public Health England, nearly two-thirds of adults were overweight or obese in 2015.
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Here’s another really bad idea who’s time has come I guess…
I wasn’t sure where to post this. It’s like an intersection of bad pseudoscience (sadly, that’s what I’ve started to consider mainstream nutrition and exercise “science” to be for the most part since starting my Keto journey) and well intentioned but misinformed government agencies (which is how this whole obesity disaster got accelerated back in 1978).

How long with government & medical agencies hold on to their saturated fat & salt fantasies anyway?
sigh

My receipt would look awful red:
Bacon Ends
Butter
Chuck Roast
Chicken Livers
heavy cream
half n half
Kimchi
Brussels sprouts
Blueberries

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

Who even looks at receipts, anyway? And surely it’s not my supermarket’s job to be my nanny.

#3

I always look at the receipt before I walk out. Although stores have gotten better, there are many times when items are mispriced or sales prices were not as stated

However I agree, there is already enough bad information out there based on CICO why create more

(Davey B ) #4

I just need the standard nutritional label to do my math for the day - WITHOUT BIAS or colourful subjectivity of some numbed and passivated government agency! Just the “FACTS” please! :joy:

…and who counts calories anymore?? CICO, Forgetaboutit!
-> 20g or less carbs, moderate protein, fat to satiety!!.. Let your hormones rule on Keto! :wink:

When it’s my life at stake, I’ll do the driving!
Pos vibes,
Dave

(Anderson Herzogenrath Da Costa) #5

From a grocery receipt they don’t know if it will be a meal for one persor or one week worth of meals for a family of 4, they don’t know what I didn’t buy because I have already sitting at my fridge, they don’t know if it’s food for a lean athlete or a 600lbs obese.

The information they can provide on the receipt will not be useful nor reliable and only add to confusion.

(G. Andrew Duthie) #6

No.

Next question?

(Siobhan) #7

Calories do not equate to health and I typically buy enough food to last me at least two weeks (sale meat, butter, cream) so it wouldnt really tell me anything.

(Adam Kirby) #8

Looks like the dumbest idea in a while, especially given that calorie counts can legally be off by 20 percent. So, what exactly is being accomplished?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #9

What? You don’t think making us all feel gluttonous and slothful (as if!) is a worthwhile goal? /s

(Adam Kirby) #10

The conflating of salt, fat, and (gasp!!!) sat fat with sugar as something to get a red flag also grinds my gears.

(Davey B ) #11

There seems to be strong unanimity here,… next chat! :sweat_smile:

#12

Let’s say I’m stocking up on hamburger meat. A receipt does nothing to track how often I do this (and thus have any bearing on my daily consumption). Useless idea but at least they’re trying to inform consumers better. As long as sugar is on there as one of the items tracked I guess I trust it’s informative rather than tactical.

(Michael Wallace Ellwood) #13

I agree that it’s a stupid idea (and on behalf of my nutritionally misguided country, I apologise…) for all the reasons stated.

And (of course) they highlight saturated fat, which is actually good for us, and ignore PUFAs, which are actually bad for us (at least in any quantity).

And they ignore protein and non-sugar carbs.

Apart from anything else, I think it would be difficult to implement (certainly implement with any accuracy) from a technical point of view.

(BTW, I certainly do look at my receipts, but not for nutritional information).