Wednesday, December 06, 2006

PAM is Fat

The Nutrition Facts label on PAM's rear leads one to believe that PAM® is fat-free. (Note PAM's frontal solicitation also.)
Click for larger.

No fat, no calories, no protein or carbs, no nothing. Nothing, that is, if you can pull off the feat of spraying for no more than 1/3 of a second, the listed serving size. Even then you'll end up depositing about 0.27g of PAM, which is, for all intents and purposes, pure fat, onto your cooking surface. That 1/3 second spray contains about 2.4 calories, not zero - the same amount of calories found in 0.27g of any oil. If your action of depressing and releasing PAM's nozzle lasts for a more practical 1 second, you'll lay on about 7 calories, mostly from fat. If you're singing a Christmas jingle while spraying your cookie sheets, you might inadvertently spray several grams of additional fat. Of course, given the 184g of fat in the cookie dough's 1/2 lb butter (2 sticks), it's an iota.

Why am I saying this? Three reasons:
  1. PAM is fat. It's a superlative achievement of marketing that a product made from fat can be advertised to appear fat-free.

  2. If you're going to use fat, why not smear a little extra virgin olive oil, tasty almond oil, or rancid-free peanut oil onto your pans, potatoes, and pasta? Why not ditch the grain alcohol and propellant?

  3. I'm curious to know how many people can count to 0.33 seconds.

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