01/19/2010 4:00 am
Sheconomics
The Benefits of Sticker Shock, by Jean Chatzky
From calories to spending, sometimes we need to review the sum total.
All that changed in April of 2008. That was when Starbucks stores started posting calorie counts of all of its options. My Misto was fine – even though I had it made with two-percent milk rather than skim (which seems to me little more than colored water) – but the donut weighed in at 495 calories. I did some mental math: nearly 2500 calories a week, 10,000 calories a month. Or three pounds I had to avoid or work off elsewhere. I stopped cold turkey.
Which is why I wasn’t surprised at the results of a new piece of research out of Stanford University. It found that the calorie posting in New York City resulted in what can only be classified as sticker shock. As in my case, people stuck with their choices in cappuccinos and other drinks but swapped to foods with smaller calorie counts or skipped foods altogether. Average calories from food per transaction fell by 14 percent, the study found. And for customers who averaged more than 250 calories per transaction (like me) calories fell by 26 percent.
In other words, once you know what you’re consuming – as opposed to consuming mindlessly – your behavior is likely to change. That’s why keeping a food diary has been acclaimed as the one thing you should do to insure success of a diet. (One study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine in August 2008 that tracked 1,685 overweight or obese adults found that the primary predictor of how much weight a participant lost was how many days each week they wrote in their food diary. Although the average participant lost 13 pounds over six months, the people who kept written notes six days a week lost twice as much weight as those who wrote one day a week.) And it’s why I firmly believe that tracking your spending is the one thing you should do if you want to increase savings and pay down debt.
When you track your spending, or keep a spending diary, you note – to the dollar – where all of your money is going. A dollar into the vending machine for a soda? Write it down. Twelve dollars for a sandwich and a couple of magazines at the 7-11? Write that down, too. Hundreds for a special outfit to wear to your niece’s wedding? No expense is too large or too small to be logged. As the days pass, you’ll start to notice that you’re spending more than you ever thought on greeting cards or taxi fare or takeout sushi or whatever. And you’ll use that information to make changes. Here are some hints for making tracking your spending a habit.
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I dearly love sweets and would not have given up the gooey donut - but I also would never have been eating a gooey donut at every breakfast, either. Even as much as I love sugar, once a week (or even less often) is quite enough for a treat like that.
The posting of calorie contents is a good thing, though. This article shows that when people are aware of calorie contents, they can make better choices. As obese as our population has become, we need that… saw another article recently indicating that obesity rates have "leveled off," but then, once you reach the top of the mountain, you’re going to stop climbing!! Hopefully we can head back down now.
There is a little coffee shop across the street from my office that I use to stop in every morning to buy a fruit smoothie. Fruit - smoothie. How can something with that name be bad for you? It had fresh strawberries or other berries mixed with yogurt….a healthy alternative I believed to those who snack on donuts and muffins the size of a human head.
No, I was being a good girl. That is until I saw a report on TV about hidden calories and how so many people were drinking smoothies thinking they were lo-cal when they aren’t. I asked the barista what the calorie count was for my daily drink. She sheepishly replied between 550-600 calories. What!
As I said, I use to stop by this little coffee shop across the street from my office every morning. :-)
Most adults who have a regular job know that donuts are not "breakfast." For decades every magazine and newspaper has touted the importance of protein and fruit and grains for breakfast, so I fiind it very hard to believe that anyone with half a noggin doesn’t know what they are doing, and isn’t flying in the face of reality - and they do know it, and so did you, Ms. Jean!!! Besides, now you also know that the calories listed by all food chains are lower than reality - think up!
As far as the "donut" is concerned, any company earning their profits from these foods in America today doesn’t have a modicum of ethics. Not only are they loaded with nothing valuable, but fried in PALM OIL! Its not just the fat and sugar content that kills people, it’s what the products do once they are in the body! The colon sends blood to our pancreas and liver for another filtering, then back to the left side; however, this crapola cannot be filtered, and over-tax those precious organs that biologically are there to keep us alive! Shame!!!! http://www.toppotdoughnuts.com/docs/tp-nutritional%20data%20sheet_10-08.pdf
Its hard enough for people eating excellent diets, exercising, and trying to keep away from "anything white" who are thrown into the heap of "overeaters," when our nation is filled not only with obviously over-eating humans, but thin ones who’s organs are giving out and their heart muscles are stiffening up, and yet they keep on keeping on with such things as Starbuck’s, McDonald’s, Burger King, pizza companies, and all the rest - there are ways to make excellent tasting foods without killing humans!
Sugar? It’s 18 calories a teaspoonful - yet people keep buying "fake sweeteners" that tell their brains to release INSULIN - and on it goes - all to save 18 calories! This is no smarter than financing a new car through a dealership!
When Stanford, and all schools, and universities removed the bad foods from their income-producing machines (medical school canteens have nothing safe to eat in them, either!) then we can start citing parents for abuse who’s grossly overweight children are slowly dying - but then CPS workers will have to be lean and mean, too.
Weight that shows isn’t the answer always, it’s what the blood chemistries evidence. Jean go straight to your internist and get a complete blood profile done, now!
I worked over two decades in buildings that either had dining or a deli on the premises, very early on I started calculating how many hours I was working to give back the pay in food and stopped.
I put myself in my own recession before the big one, knowing I wanted to make some life changes, paying off debt, etc. I survived and learned to live on a fraction of my income, good enough - I seen it through now it is time to step back up my income yet save more than I did in the past. I learned to appreciate more than in the past, also realized it is alright to do better without regret. Balance comes from within rather than the economy.
I just started counting calories for the first time in my life. while i’ve been overweight a couple times in my life by 10 pounds or so. I’ve never had a weight problem. But middle age causes metabolism changes so I thought i’d just SEE what i ate in a day. WOW was I surprised by some things. Granola… super high cal. a quarter cup of granola had more than double the calories of cup of other cereal. i pretty much cut out granola, cheese, nuts except for very small portions….
Now if i could just get brave enough to track my spending.
A lot of good, nutritious foods are high-calorie. Fruit and fruit juice, yogurt, whole milk, cheese, nuts - the trick is not to avoid calorie-dense foods, but to avoid empty calories. The gooey donut doesn’t have a lot of nutritional bang for the buck, but we crave it because it’s high-energy. Thanks, Ice Age Ancestors!
We started tracking our spending when we were first married so we could save for a house. In our spending budget we had a lump sum of discretionary money we didn’t have to account for. That was to keep us from feeling as though we had to justify every cent we spent.
We started tracking our money again when our kids were mostly grown so they could see what our salaries bought. When they saw the bills for school tuition, groceries, medical and other necessities they toned down their own want lists. As adults they developed sensible spending habits.
When I got divorced and had to go on SS Disability everything changed. I stop drinking coffee all together, I drank my tea, milk, Pepsi, and water I purified myself with my Brita container. Once a month I treat myself and go out to dinner, I take which ever book I’m reading with me and spend two hours in one of my favorite restaurants. But if there is a birthday or holiday that month, that dinner might not happen. With the loss of COLA for this year and the increase in most foods, gas, car maintenance going out to eat will be far and few in between. I know when I go see my kids their going to let me pick the place, and knowing how hard they work for their money I’ll choose the grocery store and do the cooking for them, and make them something they like but have yet to master on their own.
My children were well aware of my income before I was forced to stop working and they knew it was I who bought all the gifts for Christmas and bdays (dad was a tight wad) they couldn’t believe how I can afford to live today on the little I have coming in today. I told them you buy what you need and make it last, like one roast for me can be three meals, take a third and cube it for beef stew, another third for an actual roast beef dinner which will be for two nights, and the rest for stir fry. I taught them how to take chicken (boneless, skinless) breast cut into strips, beaten to thin layers breaded and either baked or fried for chicken fingers. I taught them how to make the real Buffalo Wings, and how to make sweet potato french fries from scratch. All it takes is time and the willingness to want to learn and you can make your food allowance stretch for the entire month and maybe if your lucky have enough left over for a movie.
I used to waste money buying a diet cola and salad on the way to work (this was Madison Avenue—so the total was about $10 a day, conservatively). Then I decided to save money and made the salad at home and drank water at work, or the coffee the office provided, when I needed caffeine. There were always newspapers around the office (Times, Wall St. Journal, assorted magazines), so I never got in the habit of stopping at newstands, thank goodness—folks often don’t think about the money they sink in those places, it adds up.
By the time I was laid off I saved a small nestegg from lots of other healthy changes in my daily routine. I am also glad I stopped drinking cola in favor of filtered water—I think I was addicted to soda; my boyfriend still drinks regular cola (oh! the empty calories!). He has a great career, works long hours, and is entitled to spend his money the way he sees fit, of course, but when I see him waste money on junk food and "candy coffee" (all syrup), it bothers me. I make suggestions, but in a loving way, I never nag. Lately, he has been telling me triumphant stories about how he ate a salad for lunch instead of his usual pizza, or how he is cutting down on cola and drinking water instead. I am his biggest cheerleader. I just wish he would stop the candy coffee. It smells revolting.