We see what we want to see
Muse #319 - unintentional blindness
I was making breakfast a few days ago. I often add margarine to my toast while I make it on the pan. And while doing it this time I was glancing at the label. And suddenly something struck me. I had been reading the label wrong all along all my life.
And was using the margarine generously assuming the calorific value was for a tablespoon. Oops, I realized it was actually for a teaspoon - which is 1/3rd the size of the tablespoon. Instead of using 70 calories of margarine, I had been using over 200 calories each time for a couple of slices of toast. All my lifeā¦ say around 15-20 years of it.
And all this was by misreading the labels. The eyes have been reading whatever it wanted to read. Enough to justify the use of sufficient margarine to toast the bread to make it feel warm and buttery. Well, I have bread-toast a couple of times a week at best, so the error is 250 calories a week, but in the end it all adds up.
What other things have I been misreading all my life due to this unintentional blindness? And it is not just about food labels. I will have to keep lookingā¦