Showerthought: the 30% protein claim on my cereal box is a straight up lie

I read the fine print on a box of oat loops this morning and the 30% protein only applies to a 50 gram serving with milk, which is basically a bowl and a half. My actual breakfast scoop came out to like 12% protein, so the label is just marketing math I never questioned. Anyone else catch their go-to food doing fake serving size gymnastics?

2 comments

2 Comments

gibson.avery1mo ago

My protein powder has the same trick, it says 24 grams per scoop but the scoop they include is comically small. I measured it once and you need almost two scoops to hit the number they advertise. Now I just assume every nutrition label is lying to me by about 30 percent, which honestly makes breakfast feel like a math test.

robin6281mo ago

Wow, that really bothers me too, @gibson.avery. Have you ever actually weighed the powder on a kitchen scale to see what one scoop really gives you, or are you just going by how full the scoop looks? I did that once with a bag of oatmeal and found the serving size was way off, so now I wonder if the scoop itself is the problem or if the powder just settles different than they expect. It almost makes you want to buy things by weight alone, but that gets real pricey real fast.