Wednesday 30 January 2013

The trouble with Pinterest

I am a die hard Pinterest fan.  It is such a great website!  The problem, however, is that you can't always believe what you read.  I follow all kinds of people's boards for all kinds of different things but I can never be certain of the accuracy of the claims.  This leads to websites like Pinstrosity where people submit photos of their failed Pinterest inspired projects.

My problem isn't with DIY projects, or beauty treatments, because really, what works for one person just may not work for another.  (I have hair that will pretty much cooperate with any of those pin curl or foil wrapped or pop can in the hair techniques, but most don't)  You can't just assume it was a bad pin with bad advice.  Lots of times the pins don't link back to the original source, or they are missing some (or all) instructions, so a person just guesses.  No, this is not the kind of pin I have a problem with.

Have you seen those pins for a recipe that just looks incredible, melt in your mouth, add 40 lbs to your butt delicious but claims to be either sugar free, fat free, gluten free or whatever else free?  Too good to be true but you pin it anyways? Yeah, those are the pins I hate.  We all follow that one (or more in my case) friend or random pinner who just pins everything that looks good but doesn't click the pin and read the information.  Well, this pin caught my attention.  Who doesn't love peanut butter cups? (besides those who seem to be allergic to it of course)


Well, first off, sorry Lindsy, I'm not picking on you, it was just the first pin of this recipe I stumbled on today.  Notice right away it says they taste EXACTLY like Reeses' peanut butter eggs with absolutely NO sugar whatsoever! 55 cal each?  But looking at the picture you can clearly see there is chocolate in it right?  Yeah   my spidey sense was tingling too.  I had to click the link to the blog.  I feel so bad for the woman who posted this recipe to her blog in the first place.  She never once claimed her recipe to be sugar free or low cal or anything, but that is where all the traffic to her blog is coming from.  Misinformation provided on Pinterest.  


The recipe clearly states that SUGAR is an ingredient.  There are no qualms about it.  Somebody, somewhere in the vast time and space of the interweb decided "Hey, I'm going to call this sugar free and low cal and put in on my pinterest pin board!"  This isn't the only pin I have seen this happen with, it is merely the most recent example I have seen.  This recipe looks fantastic for what it is, not because it is sugar free, but because it is full of peanutty chocolatey deliciousness!!

Moral of the story: read your pins, check the sources, and if good ol' Honest Abe has taught us anything, don't lie.  Don't trick yourself into thinking something is healthy just because the internet says it is.  Use your common sense.



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