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