Barb’s Burblings

In the morning, I watch tv as I get ready for work. If I’m on time, it’s the History Channel–Civil War Journal, The Most, Modern Marvels. If I’m running a bit late, it’s The West Wing on Bravo. Turns out these two channels have very similar demos; or, at least, similar enough that they run the same commercials. Seriously, I’ve seen that stupid Rosetta Stone commercial at least a million times. I’m still interested in the product, but please, please stop selling me on it.

Anyway, there’s a new one that really annoys me. The narrator says something about people not paying attention when shopping, and shows a blindfolded woman picking a frozen meal out of a freezer aisle. Then she takes off the blindfold and looks at the nutritional information. “300 calories?!” she says, horrified. “And 8 grams of fat!” Then it mentions that there’s this soup that’s only 80 calories! Why are you consuming so many calories needlessly?

Well, first, if I’m buying a frozen meal, I’m probably going to have it for lunch. At work. Where I don’t exactly have access to a stove upon which to heat the soup. And no, it didn’t seem that this soup came in those “Heat in the microwave” containers.

But more annoyingly, really, 300 calories and 8 grams of fat (which is on the high end for a Healthy Choice or similar frozen meal) IS NOT THAT MUCH FOR A MEAL. If you assume that the average person should be eating 2000 calories a day, we’re talking about 15% of the day’s calories. Which seems about right, for lunch. Honestly, I don’t know that 80 calories is going to power me through the afternoon. Maybe if I paired it with someone…which, of course, means I’d be consuming more than 80 calories for lunch. Quite possibly, something at much as 300 calories.

Now, it’s not that I’m anti-soup. I’m not. I frequently have soup for lunch on weekends. I’m just saying that sheesh, people, it’s not like we can live without any calories. Simmer down.