Entry tags:
Charles Lamb, nutrition panels, V8, and peaches
I don't eat a lot of pork rinds; possibly the number of instances is still under ten. It's never as good as Charles Lamb made burnt pork skin sound in A Dissertation upon Roast Pig, which is the number one if not the only thing I remember from 'reader' anthologies in high school. (Though we didn't have the illustrations, which may be just as well.)
But I occasionally keep trying. In particular, I really explored the nearby Market Basket for the first time today, and in the Brazilian food aisle I found Goya pork rinds, so bought it. And took it home, and started eating it, and reading the nutrition panel as one does (well, I do):
"Protein: 8 g Not a significant source of protein"
Eh? 8 grams in a serving is quite significant, superior to an egg or serving of canned beans. Did they mean 0.8 g? But no one prints that. Also, a half oz (14 g) serving had 80 calories, and 5 g fat with 8 g protein. So 45+32=77=close enough calories. All the numbers add up, there's just this gratuitous "Not a significant" comment. Weird.
[ETA: a friend alerts me to claims that pork rinds are skin and thus mostly collagen, rich in amino acids our bodies can already synthesize and poor in essential amino acids like tryptophan that we need from our diet. So maybe that's behind the note: yes there's a lot of protein, but nutritionally it won't save you from protein deficiency.]
While I'm posting about food, a Vox link with pictures about how much corn, watermelon, and peaches have changed.
Also, I've long kind of liked V8. Except it has huge amounts of sodium, and though my (new doctor) friend avows that salt isn't something most people without hypertension have to worry about, I still balk at things that have 25% of USRDA in a serving, especially if they're tomato juice or canned beans, vs. a sausage that I might not have tons of anyway. Happily, I recently found low sodium "vegetable juice" at Trader Joe's. Even more happily, I more recently found low sodium V8 at the nearby supermarket, so I don't have to haul jugs of liquid home from Alewife. So I can readily chug something which has 26% RDA potassium to 6% RDA sodium, which seems a much healthier ratio.
But I occasionally keep trying. In particular, I really explored the nearby Market Basket for the first time today, and in the Brazilian food aisle I found Goya pork rinds, so bought it. And took it home, and started eating it, and reading the nutrition panel as one does (well, I do):
"Protein: 8 g Not a significant source of protein"
Eh? 8 grams in a serving is quite significant, superior to an egg or serving of canned beans. Did they mean 0.8 g? But no one prints that. Also, a half oz (14 g) serving had 80 calories, and 5 g fat with 8 g protein. So 45+32=77=close enough calories. All the numbers add up, there's just this gratuitous "Not a significant" comment. Weird.
[ETA: a friend alerts me to claims that pork rinds are skin and thus mostly collagen, rich in amino acids our bodies can already synthesize and poor in essential amino acids like tryptophan that we need from our diet. So maybe that's behind the note: yes there's a lot of protein, but nutritionally it won't save you from protein deficiency.]
While I'm posting about food, a Vox link with pictures about how much corn, watermelon, and peaches have changed.
Also, I've long kind of liked V8. Except it has huge amounts of sodium, and though my (new doctor) friend avows that salt isn't something most people without hypertension have to worry about, I still balk at things that have 25% of USRDA in a serving, especially if they're tomato juice or canned beans, vs. a sausage that I might not have tons of anyway. Happily, I recently found low sodium "vegetable juice" at Trader Joe's. Even more happily, I more recently found low sodium V8 at the nearby supermarket, so I don't have to haul jugs of liquid home from Alewife. So I can readily chug something which has 26% RDA potassium to 6% RDA sodium, which seems a much healthier ratio.