Tag: Oreos

what you don’t know about Oreos

Let me tell you two things about Oreos that you may not know (since I made it up).

1) There are three servings of Oreos per package. Forget what the nutritional information box says on the back — that’s just to appease the FDA with their serving size suggestions and such. The evidence is that they are divided neatly into three rows, so you know how many to eat per sitting without having to count them. It’s a clever design.

2) Regular Oreos should be called Lite Oreos. The Double-Stuf Oreos should be considered normal, because they have the ideal balance between creme filling and cookie shell. (I realize this is my opinion, so others may think differently, but I have done exhaustive research on this topic and I’m right.)

Now you know…

BONUS TRIVIA: Do you know how many flavors of Oreos that have been made? (I wouldn’t expect anyone to know the literal number, but do you think it’s over 30 or 50 or 100?) One count I found is 143 different flavors of Oreos. I know I’ve seen a few weird ones in the store occasionally, but I had no idea there were that many. (Actually, I usually try to NOT look at the Oreo display in the grocery store, because I would always want to buy a package but I also want to be healthy, so they must be eaten in moderation.) Anyway, I happened across a website about snacks that ranked all 143 flavors of Oreos they found. The list starts with the worst ones, which are the most interesting (to read about, not to eat). If you want to be surprised at the crazy ideas:

REVIEW: Ranking Over 100 Oreo Flavors Because We’re Fat. (Note: The article and site should be at least PG-rated, if that matters to you. Also, it lists 132 reviews, but some are combined.)

world record birthday Cheetos

I figure at some point most everyone thinks it would be neat to somehow get in the Guinness Book of World Records.  Today I had a random thought along those lines, but not for that purpose.  I recently had a birthday (which was cancelled, BTW, for everyone who keeps bringing it up), and I was craving Cheetos.  (We have some baked Cheetos here, which are good, though not quite the same… more like cheese popcorn than Cheetos.  But I digress…)  Anyway, if only I had a bag of Cheetos for every time someone said I was getting old…  🙂

Then I wondered what the world record would be for the most bags of Cheetos received as birthday gifts.  That would be a fun record to break.  🙂  The concept could also be applied to Oreos…

Cheetos - many industrial sized bags, $65 per bag supposedly

I searched for a picture to go with this post and found this one.  Supposedly the guy in the picture bought these industrial-sized bags of Cheetos direct from the factory for $65 per bag and bought 28 bags.  I’m not sure I have sufficient space to store that many Cheetos in my house, and I’m most certain that the WAF (Wife Approval Factor) of that would be near 0.  So maybe I won’t be chasing this world record after all… (though I still must admit it would be fun to try).

100 years of Oreos

Nom nom nom

This week the Oreo cookie turned 100 years old.  What a great invention it was!  Can you imagine how the inventor felt when he first created it?  And when he first dipped it in milk?

Here’s a “fact” about Oreos you may not know.  There are 3 rows of Oreos per package because there are actually just 3 servings per package.  That makes it easy to limit yourself to one serving per serving.  🙂

That may not pass intellectual muster, but here’s a true fact.  Sales of Oreos in 2011 were over $2 billion.  That’s a LOT of cookies!  On a semi-related note, Kraft Foods, who owns the Oreo brand, also sells Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, which is turning 75 this year.

I wonder what the next great food-related invention will be…  We tend to take great food for granted, but there are times in history when there was no such thing as chocolate-chip cookies, or Oreos, or Cheetos, or cheese dip.  (I can’t imagine life without cheese dip!)  There has to be some next great food out there just waiting to be discovered.

the junk food diet that works!

Have you heard of the Twinkie diet?  It’s also known as a convenience store diet.   A professor of human nutrition decided to prove that the main cause of weight loss was counting calories, not the nutritional value of the food.  So for two months, he ate a small meal of junk food every three hours.   His meals consisted of Twinkies, Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Doritos, sugary cereals, and Oreos.  That was two-thirds of his diet — the rest included a daily protein shake, some vegetables, and a multivitamin pill.  His project was a success, in that he lost 27 pounds in two months.

Would deep-fried Oreos fit in this "diet"?

Sounds great, right?  When I heard this, I was thinking, “Where do you sign up for this kind of research?!?”  What made his “diet” effective was that he limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day.  A man of his size would normally consume 2,600 calories per day.  The key to his “diet” (and any diet) was to consume fewer calories than he burned.   It makes sense.  (That’s my approach, although it looks like I haven’t been eating enough junk food!)

You might assume this his junk food diet would make his health worse, but it actually didn’t.  His “bad” cholesterol (LDL) dropped 20 percent and his “good” cholesterol (HDL) increased by 20 percent.  His level of triglycerides (a measure of body fat) went down by 39 percent.  That’s inconceivable.

So according to his research experiment and the documented results, you can eat Twinkies and Oreos and Doritos every day and become healthier! The numbers don’t lie.

At this link there’s a list of what his typical daily diet would include: Twinkie diet helps professor lose 27 pounds.

I almost hesitate to admit this next part because it might mean that the self-proclaimed “Important Doctor” might actually know something about nutrition and be right, but perhaps there is some validity to the bacon and cheese diet, if used in moderation.  I decided to put that in here because it sounds like some research is in order…  🙂   We also need to add Cheetos and Oreos and ice cream to it.   Then include copious amounts of Southern-style sweet tea, and it would be the most awesome diet ever.