Nutrition Labeling trick or truth
 

Food label
tricks & truths
What’s really in the stuff you’re eating?

How many times have you stood blocking the
grocery aisle while you tried to make sense
of a food label, only to give up in frustration
and just toss something into the cart? It’s
not just you. A recent review of 19 studies
showed that most people find nutrition labeling
confusing, and apparently lots of folks have just given up.
A Food and Drug Administration study found that one
out of every five of us don’t even bother to read labels (in
the 35-and-under crowd, that number jumps to about
one in three).
One problem is that food labels are mostly product
advertising and can be very misleading. Those marketing
come-ons that decorate the front of the package—with
claims like “heart healthy” or “natural”—can easily trick
you into thinking that products are more healthful than
they actually are. And sometimes manufacturers go
too far: The FDA recently warned General Mills that its
cholesterol-lowering claims made Cheerios sound more
like a drug than a cereal, and Dannon has settled a
lawsuit over misleading claims relating to its Activia and
DanActive products. (More on that later.) Smart
Choices, one of a slew of new food-labeling programs
designed to make it easy to spot good nutritional
choices, recently stirred up outrage after the logo was
spotted on Froot Loops and other sugary foods.
In this story, we expose some of the sneakiest label
tricks used by food manufacturers. We’ll also get you
up to speed on the latest nutrition seals of approval
that you’ll be seeing at supermarkets. And don’t miss
our clip-and-shop guide and the easy label-reading tips
starting on page 28 so that you can skip the hype and go
straight to the facts you need to know—and toss food
into your cart with confidence.

Read this funny guide:
http://www.shopsmart.org/files/Food..._and_truths.pdf

A simple method: do not purchase any food item that has a label with a list of ingredients. No calculations required. :thup:

I agree, Single ingredient foods only, no label reading required.

Same here, fresh is best.
Meat and veggies have no labels or coupons. :lol:

I make an exception for bacon. It's worth reading a few labels for that.

Ah, yes.

I should add that I buy regular commercial mayo. Most are made with soybean oil, which I generally try to avoid. Occasionally I use a prepared pizza sauce, and I take into consideration what the label says.

The other day, while a houseguest, I happened to read the label on a well-known coffee creamer my host uses. Horrifying! First chance I got, I supplied the fridge with some real HWC. Of course, they were probably horrified by my fat-habit.

I know!! The sugar in that creamer stuff is horrifying...
Can you believe people even like it? It tastes like some chemical concoction and it is :lol: :lol:

My favorite over used word that seems to be popping up everywhere is "NATURAL". At the grocery store, they had even put a huge label on the packages of chicken saying natural. I instantly wondered what an "unnatural" chicken would look like. Would it be made out of nuts and bolts?

If I am having a rough day and the food sample people try to force feed me whatever junk they are selling and tell me how the ingredients are "natural" my response is that arsenic is natural too, but I don't want to eat it. (I try not to be that grumpy, but stuff happens lol)

Un-natural chicken might be like the rumor going around said that KFC was lab growing something chicken like that had no feathers and that's what it was made of.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

While waking through Walmart a while back and passing through the peanut butter aisle, a shopper, who tended to talk to anyone within earshot, was evaluating peanut butter with his children. He said to me, "Well this one's labeled Natural, so that's good isn't it?" My response, "So is chicken scat, but how often would you eat that?"

I've been saying that if it was natural they would call it what it is, like milk or curry powder, not 'natural ingredients'

That coffee creamer stuff has given me a belly-ache for decades -- long before I needed any excuse not to use it. :-)

I've been trying to persuade folks at my church who decide such things to supply the "coffee hour" with those little containers of half-n-half instead of "creamer." I don't think there's much difference in cost. But what a difference in chemicals!

By the way, the "host" I referred to above was very pleased with a cocktail he'd invented, and I politely agreed to try one. Recipe? [Famous coffee creamer] mixed with Southern Comfort. About the worst thing imaginable to put in one's body! But this person also eats microwave popcorn for breakfast. Seems like a sort of death wish to me. But we don't critique our host's habits, right?

I don't know what they have for "creamer" at church now. They used to have the ersatz stuff at our church, too. But I switched over to black coffee many years ago, so it isn't a problem for me. The little pots of half and half would certainly be an improvement. They are offering some cheese at the treats table at my church now, so that's good.

Most popular label trick? Small fonts for the ingredient list, large fonts for the front of the package, claims and general BS. Solution? Equal size fonts for ingredient list and front of package, except product name and brand which can use larger fonts.

Second most popular label trick. Content of popular bad and good things like salt, fat, sugar, fiber, etc, all in big fonts on the front of the package. Solution? Whatever is already on the nutrition label and the ingredient list cannot be repeated in part elsewhere on the package, except in the product name where fonts must be equal size.

Third most popular label trick. Claims and general BS are all over the package. It's confusing. Solution? All claims and general BS must be within a dedicated space outlined and named "claims" (exactly like the ingredient list is named "ingredients", and the nutrition label is named "nutrition facts") on the front of the package, it must not be mixed with product name and brand nor with ingredient list and nutrition label.

If you think about it, it's brilliant. Flavor must be in the name so instead of yogurt then elsewhere on the package it says strawberry, it has to be strawberry yogurt on the same line. Or 0% fat yogurt on the same line. Or 0% fat 0% sugar 10g-fiber-per-portion naturally-flavored bullshit, all on the same line with equal size fonts. Or, brand and name on top in big letters, claims and general BS in an outlined area directly below that with same font size as ingredient list, nutrition label elsewhere, ingredient list in the back which will most likely occupy the entire back label. Brilliant.