Talks to Watch

The Truth Behind Calorie Labels

6.3M views · Feb 19, 2013 · 5:50 · 1 HN recommender · 3 mentions · discussed 2016–2022

Casey Neistat's short New York Times op-doc investigating how accurate restaurant and packaged-food calorie labels really are. He gets items from chains like Chipotle, Starbucks and Subway measured by nutrition researchers and compares them to the printed numbers.

Why Hacker News points people here: Cited in threads on calorie counting as a quick, visual demonstration that labeled calories can be well off.

“Casey Neistat made a fun little video[1] that explores this a bit.”HN comment, 2016

What Hacker News said 3

RecommendsGnarlyWhaleSep 2016

“Casey Neistat made a fun little video[1] that explores this a bit.”

Surprising inaccuracy of calorie counts on some foods

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Casey Neistat made a fun little video[1] that explores this a bit. Without spoilers, it was a bit surprising just how off some of the food is. [1] this video

in “What 2,000 Calories Looks Like (2014)” · view on HN
Cites itthesimonMay 2016

“The video also deals with calorie count in restaurants.”

Calorie labels in the US can be inaccurate, plus restaurant counts

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And apparently in the US you can be off by whatever you want this video The video also deals with calorie count in restaurants. The NYC regulation to require calorie counts directly on the menu really seems like a good idea. Other than the people already knowing the rough calorie count, who checks the obscure and difficult tables on the website?

in “How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods? (2003)” · view on HN
Cites itvirtuallynathanMar 2022

“Calorie counting, while not useless, is not very helpful.”

Calorie labeling accuracy questioned; counting is not very helpful

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Do you know how many calories you burn? Do you actually know how many calories are in your food? I have a metabolic cart, and the answer surprises me sometimes on the former - just standing at my desk all day I burn >3300kcal. I actually went to talk to the guy in the Casey Neistat video about food labels, and almost bought a bomb calorimeter. Calorie counting, while not useless, is not very helpful. this video

in “A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)” · view on HN