Daily Gripe

So tonight I made enchiladas (or as Andreas calls them, Danechiladas) and I was curious to know how much fiber/protein/fat/carbs/cal/etc. was in my whole wheat tortilla. But, did you know that the nutrition labels on ALL foods are listed by the 100g here? So no matter what you are eating, whether or not you would even consider eating 100g of something in one sitting (think butter), or whether or not there is even 100g of the food in the package, you are faced with a nutrition label describing the facts per 100g. I was arguing with Andreas about how silly I thought it was. No, not silly, down right ANNOYING that instead of being able to look at the package and find out what one freakin' tortilla was going to set me back, I have to weigh it and get the calculator to find out. Because clearly Danes have more time on their hands than Americans, what with shops not opening until 10am and closing at 3pm, they have plenty of time to do nutrion fact calculating. Andreas' argument is that it's easier to differentiate between two brands which is the healthier version. Also he argues that you can't LEGALLY define what a portion size is. And that McDonald's is going to start claiming that 5 hamburgers is a portion, because we idiots can't tell the difference anyway. Now, here's MY SMARTER argument. Since I'm just a stupid American, it's a heck of a lot easier for me to visualize 1 cup of something verses 100g of something. I can see a cup of oatmeal or a cup of milk or a cup of butter. All different consistencies, different weights, yet I can SEE the volume in my head. Now, ask me what 100g of oatmeal, milk or butter looks like and I don't have a clue. It makes WAY more sense to me to look on a package and be able to read what one tortilla or one bun or 1 slice of bread or 1 slice of cheese is(because of that nice nutrition label). I can imagine what 17 potato chips looks like OR better yet I can count them as I eat. But here, unless I weigh them, I'm not going to know how many chips are in 100g. In America, I can look on the label and see that 17 chips might be 140 calories. Or that 1 tortilla might be 110 calories. But here I have to take out the 2 tortillas that I will eat, weigh them, find out they are only 75g and whip out my handy dandy calculator that I now set on the table with every meal like a knife and fork, to find out what's in a dang tortilla! True, it's not rocket science, the math isn't difficult but it's a time consuming nuisance. I just don't understand why they do it this way. Health or weight conscious people that like to keep track of calories/protein/fat/fiber will have a bugger of a time with this. It's probably the biggest pain in the ass I've encountered since arriving here. I think I should continue this "daily gripe", I have enough to keep me going strong for a least 3 weeks.