Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 156 posts

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#141

Post by [deleted] »

hueving wrote: post #125
thinkloop wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point, I have definitely noticed this in my own family. The elders are not only against "wasting" money above the minimum required for sustenance, but they get openly and visibly angry about it when someone else does. For some reason, this particular issue crosses over from "well I wouldn't do it, but to each his own", to seeing it as a fundamentally immoral act. It surprised me in the beginning. Personally I c…

>A dog is pretty much a 2 yr old child. So is a pig, so this logic really only applies to vegetarians. There is still something else that motivates meat eating people to care more for their pets.

[deleted]

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#142

Post by thinkloop »

shalmanese wrote: post #140
thinkloop wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point, I have definitely noticed this in my own family. The elders are not only against "wasting" money above the minimum required for sustenance, but they get openly and visibly angry about it when someone else does. For some reason, this particular issue crosses over from "well I wouldn't do it, but to each his own", to seeing it as a fundamentally immoral act. It surprised me in the beginning. Personally I c…

To provide the devil's advocate position, why does mere ownership suddenly imply a much higher duty of care? It would be morally abhorrent if we started euthanizing millions of toddlers who we couldn't find homes for yet we're fine doing the same to pets. What, morally, should be the difference between "pets we can find a home for" and "pets we can't find a home for"?

I think most people would be more repulsed if a child's own parents mis-treated them, rather than if an orphanage did. The whole scale is just shifted up for humans. Bias towards "ownership" still exists.

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#143

Post by jacalata »

analog31 wrote: post #135
analog31 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, all I can offer is... tonight is baking night. I will weigh the ingredients, equipment, the risen dough, and the final product.

So far... Flour 765 g, some white and some whole wheat Yeast 18 g, probably too much Water 611 g, eyeballed 600 ml in old glass measuring cup After kneading 1408 g After first rising 1416 g After "punch down" and second rising 1406 g Formed into loaves, waiting to rise before putting in oven Edit: After baking, 1271 g I'm using a creaky old Ohaus dual pan balance, surplus from an industrial lab. The process is not en…

Presumably that gain after first rising is experimental error? What could cause it to gain weight there?

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#144

Post by spoofball »

refurb wrote: post #132
spoofball wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the majority of pet food is meat not fit for human consumption. [1] if you aren't feeding your pet meat that you eat, it's living on extreme crap. [1]: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-industry-exposed/unfi...

My dog will eat other animal feces. His standards for "food" are pretty low.

No one is talking about standards. I'm talking about food that might make your dog sick or malnourished.

But to each his own.

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#145

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

lsc wrote: post #99
thinkloop wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check this out: http://www.alive.com/health/fit-for-human-consumption/ Animals that are sick or unhealthy are separated from the herd and slaughtered independently, then sold for pet food and livestock feed. This was partly what fostered the mad cow issue. There is higher risk for illness with non-human grade food. If you don't want higher risk for your pet than child, you shouldn't feed the off-the-shelf non-human g…

> if you care about your pet like you do your child, you shouldn't feed the off-the-shelf non-human grade food. This is... an interesting generational thing, I think. To most older people, the idea of caring as much for your pet as you would for a child seems viscerally wrong. They even economize on pet healthcare. but... among those younger than me, your view, as far as I can tell, seems to be the norm. The very ide…

> This is... an interesting generational thing, I think.

Totally. Not too long ago, pets, and livestock, would be fed table scraps and glad of it.

Like we've been taught - actually shamed - into using soap, deodorant and sundry other 'essentials' to the soap manufacturers well-being, so with pet care.

Curious about what else they'll come up with next to mop up wealth and productivity. It's bound to be amusing.

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#146

Post by geon »

mysterypie wrote: post #16
cma wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The protein test was famously faked with melamine in the Chinese dog-food scandal that killed dogs and resulted in a recall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_pet_food_recalls

I was following that case closely back in 2007 because of my pet (thankfully not affected). An astonishing thing I learned was that practically every brand of cat food and dog food in North America is/was manufactured by a single company called Menu Foods in Streetsville, Ontario, Canada. The pet food "brands" don't have their own factories. They all contract it out to the same place. A few journalists remarked on th…

> We agonize over which brand is healthier for our cats and dogs, but it's all an illusion.

Does manufacturing the product at the same location imply that the content is the same?

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#147

Post by eru »

jacalata wrote: post #117
eru wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wonder why they don't just order more from the factory and sell to the Chinese? (Or raise prices.) Why don't they want to make more money?

I don't know if the factories are manufacturing enough, or capable of ramping up to do so. It's a huge increase in demand. I heard of similar problems in Australia.

Sure, but why not just charge more and sell to the highest bidders?

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#148

Post by thinkloop »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #145
lsc wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you care about your pet like you do your child, you shouldn't feed the off-the-shelf non-human grade food. This is... an interesting generational thing, I think. To most older people, the idea of caring as much for your pet as you would for a child seems viscerally wrong. They even economize on pet healthcare. but... among those younger than me, your view, as far as I can tell, seems to be the norm. The very ide…

> This is... an interesting generational thing, I think. Totally. Not too long ago, pets, and livestock, would be fed table scraps and glad of it. Like we've been taught - actually shamed - into using soap, deodorant and sundry other 'essentials' to the soap manufacturers well-being, so with pet care. Curious about what else they'll come up with next to mop up wealth and productivity. It's bound to be amusing.

Are we talking human grade table scraps? :)

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#149

Post by spoofball »

danieltillett wrote: post #94
spoofball wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same thing is for protein present in grass but indigestible for humans. cows can extract "enormous" amounts of protein from foods that humans wouldn't ever. it's very hard measuring how much digestible protein something has, such as beans, or lentils, or soybeans. it depends if you eat the shell, did you blend the shell like a mad man, even if you blended beans into a homogenous phlegm

Cows are not extracting protein from grass (well not much), they are converting the cellulose in the grass into microorganisms and then extracting the proteins from the microorganisms. The ruminant digestive system is an amazing system [1]. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant

You mean, microorganisms allow better deconstruction of cellulose which then frees the protein and makes it digestable?

Yeah, ruminants are amazing with their cyclic puking and eating :)

Re: How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)

#150

Post by danieltillett »

spoofball wrote: post #149
danieltillett wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cows are not extracting protein from grass (well not much), they are converting the cellulose in the grass into microorganisms and then extracting the proteins from the microorganisms. The ruminant digestive system is an amazing system [1]. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant

You mean, microorganisms allow better deconstruction of cellulose which then frees the protein and makes it digestable? Yeah, ruminants are amazing with their cyclic puking and eating :)

Cows actually can't digest cellulose at all - what they can do is harbour the microorganisms that can. These microorganisms are then eaten by the cow and provide most of the protein in a cows diet.
Post reply on HN