Nuts for lunch

Food manufacturers, processors and packers do not always make it easy for us to decide how much of any particular food to eat. Take the example of brazil nuts. These are a great food, rich in phosphorous and magnesium as well as being one of the very best sources of selenium, important for the immune system and regulating metabolism. Allergies and intolerances permitting, they should form part of everyone’s diet. However, they are also a high calorie density food.

The picture shows a bag of Brazil nuts sold by a leading retailer in the UK. It contains 175g of Brazil nuts and is presented as part of a collection of healthy eating snacks. There is nothing wrong with that at all until your realise that 175g of Brazil nuts provides over 1,000 calories!!! The packaging clearly states that the recommended serving size is just 25g. But it is not clear why the supplier packs them into such large portions or what you are supposed to do with the other 150g.

Never mind, wash it down with a fruit juice drink, presented in the chiller cabinet shelf next to the nuts and sandwiches. What harm can that do?

The calories per serving are clearly marked on the front of the bottle for all to see; 140 calories per 250ml. The bottle has been designed with a wide mouth so we can drink straight from it more easily.

But there’s a problem, the bottle holds 500ml or two full servings. Are you supposed to get halfway through and pour the rest away? Maybe we’re expected to share half our lunchtime drink with a work colleague? Perhaps the manufacturer hopes you’ll keep the remaining half in a drawer until tomorrow…beside your brazil nuts.

Are the manufacturers and packers setting out to mislead us? Probably not.

Are they putting their own short term profitability before our well being? That seems more likely. A report written in 2008 by a leading market research company states that the trend towards healthy eating and the need for front of pack nutritional data are major inhibitors to certain sections of the food industry.

Perhaps if they packaged food in portion sizes which were more useful to consumers they could turn these “inhibitors” into market opportunities instead.

In the meantime it seems clear that we cannot always rely on food providers to help us control our portion sizes. We must do that for ourselves.