Pork and Beans

The FDA requires all food manufacturers to list ingredients on the label in order according to volume. The ingredient that is most predominant in the food is listed first, with the rest of the ingredients listed in descending order. For example, the Cherry Mountain Bar I am holding right now says, “sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil (what the heck is that?) peanuts, cocoa powder, whey, cherries, natural flavors, invertase, dextrose, etc. Okay I can kind of picture what palm kernel oil is but really, what the heck is invertase? The Snickers bar I am holding has chocolate, peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, etc. If I cared that much about the ingredients in each of these candy bars at least I could read the label and know roughly what was in them. I could also see how many grams of fat, sugar, and sodium there is in each bar along with how many calories.

Sometimes I enjoy some “pork and beans”. The reason I call them pork and beans is because the can says “Pork and Beans”. See, it's right there on the front of the can.




According to FDA labeling requirements the can would have mostly pork and then beans. One would think that means the can has pork in it. And of course beans too. Pork is listed first. That might even mean the can has mostly pork, with some beans. Now I like pork and beans, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I have a concern about the labeling or the packaging or whatever. Even when I was little I remember asking my parents why the can said pork and beans but there wasn’t any pork.

The label says pork and beans but the ingredients in a can of pork and beans are prepared white beans, water, tomato puree and sugar. After that it says, “contains less than 2% of high fructose corn syrup, salt, distilled vinegar, pork, baking soda, onion powder…” Even though the darn things are called pork and beans on the front of the can there is less than 2% pork and that 2% has other stuff besides the pork.

But wait, if that’s not enough, what exactly does it mean to call something pork? The “pork” is two uniform cubes of pork fat. Come on. That’s the “pork”?




Are those two cubes cut from a big slab of pork fat? Do they cut thousands and thousands of pork fat cubes and then have a machine put two in each can? Is there an assembly line where someone plops two in every time a can rolls by? Do they melt fat, pour it into cube molds, let it solidify and then shoot them into the cans? Those two cubes of fat count as pork? Seriously? Okay, fine, they count as pork.

The thing is, is that I like pork and beans even though there isn’t any pork. The sugar and corn syrup probably aren’t good for me but eating the beans is better for me than the Cherry Mountain Bar or the Snickers bar. As a middle age person I have to be more aware of eating less fat, less cholesterol, and more fiber. Oh look, good news! Pork and beans are cholesterol free. AND they are low in fat. Plus they are high in fiber. That is such good news; I’m starting to think pork and beans might actually be health food.

I’m thinking that a can of pork and beans is kind of like life. I don’t always get what I think I’m going to get or what I’m picturing. Sometimes things just plain don’t go the way I want them to. Sometimes I’m picturing pork and I only get beans. Sometimes I feel subtly tricked by circumstances and people and sometimes I feel downright deceived. Okay, that’s life. The good news is that if I look carefully often there is more in the beans than there first appeared to be. In life, when I get past my frustrations and my disappointments there can still be joy in simple things. I probably need to take a lesson from the pork and beans and work harder on that.

It's the weekend. Please be good. Drive your car carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally. Enjoy your weekend.

P