The NEW U.S. Metric System

I don't know how many of you remember when America was considering switching to the metric system. It was decades ago.

As a Canuck, we were immersed in learning all about centimeters, millimeters and celcius. Frankly, the change was difficult for me because I was at the age where I already was familiar with miles and farenheit.

You all know the ending of the story. Canada switched and the U.S. decided not to.

And the result are expensive speeding tickets for Americans driving through Canada, driving in miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour. (Aside: When the switch from mph to kmph was made, they kept the fines the same - so driving at 10 kph (about 6 mph) over the speed limit cost you the same as if you hade been driving at 10 mph over the limit on the day before conversion! An overnight 40% increase in all speeding fines!)

But I digress.

I wanted to talk about a brand new measurement system invading the U.S. - the 100 Calorie Pack. This brilliant marketing scheme has completely invaded the grocery store shelves, in the same way that bottled water did years ago.

Those clever marketers at all the major food brands are cleverly repackaging their products in increments of 100 Calories and selling them as snacks. They take all the guesswork out of figuring out "serving sizes" based upon the required calorie labelling on the back of all products.

Yup - just dive in. You'll only consume 100 calories.

These companies prey upon those of us (including me) who constantly battle their waistlines - at about twice the price (per portion) of the regular family sized packaging.

Brilliant.