Clever packaging…bad dietary choice
By now you’ve probably heard of the 100-calorie Twinkie.
It was inevitable.
Five years ago, the 100-calorie “diet pack” didn’t exist. Today, this food industry niche rakes in more than $400 million per year. Cookies, crackers, cupcakes…now Twinkies. What’s next? 100-calorie SpaghettiOs? 100-calorie cheeseburgers?
Surprisingly, a full-sized Twinkie only contains 150 calories. But to fit the niche, that was 50 calories too many. So Hostess scientists went to work and created a package of three bite-sized Twinkies that somehow replicate the exact taste of a full-sized Twinkie.
Of course, calorie counting isn’t good nutrition if the “food” item consists of spongy sugary carbs wrapped around creamy sugary carbs. I suppose 100 calories of junk is better for you than 150 calories of junk, but it would be hard to make that argument with a straight face.
Last summer, New Scientist reported on a snack pack study from the Netherlands. Subjects who were watching television were given potato chip snack packs along with normal-sized bags of chips.
The result (sure, you saw it coming): Those who ate from the snack packs actually ate more chips than subjects who ate from the larger bags.
Sources:
“Twinkies to Come in 100-Calorie Snack Packs” Associated Press, 11/3/08, ap.org
“Diet-Sized Snack Packs Turn Off Willpower” Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist, 7/2/08, newscientist.com
