Food Label Misdirections...

Take a walk through the candy aisle at your local grocery store and gain some insight into the food industry.  Pick up a box of your favourite candy and read the label.  For example on a product such as Mike and Ike or Good  & Plenty, you will read "Fat Free" on the box.  While true, you should be insulted by this claim, as these candies are almost entirely sugar and processed carbohydrates--and high calorie.  


Just a reminder, excess calories--calories your body does not need--get stored as body fat.


Marketing strategies of food manufacturers count on you--the consumer--being either too busy to actually read the ingredient label, or just being stupid.  Using the above candy example, they are counting on you equating "fat free" with "healthy" or "non-fattening."  Fat is not fattening--excess calories are fattening.  It is a classic con trick--the bait and switch.


The candy aisle is not the only place you will find this ploy.  Just about any product you purchase,  a similar switch is being made.

Organic:  Organic means healthy, right?  Not exactly.  Manufacturers are charging extra for products labeled "organic."  But that does not mean it is good for you.  For example, organic refined flour is still  refined flour.  Organic powdered cheese is still powdered cheese.  Both are high-calorie and have a low-nutrient value.  Remember, organic junk is still junk.



100% Pure: Lots of juices are labeld 100 percent pure juice, but what does that really mean?  For example, Tropicana Pure 100% Juice Pomegranate Blueberry.  I don't know about you, but when I read that, I think this is 100% pure pomegranate and blueberry juice. A quick read of the ingredient list here, however, show that pear, apple, and grape juices are among the first four ingredients.  These juices are much cheaper to produce, and also much sweeter.  "Trend" ingredients such as pomegranate and acai are the biggest culprits here, with supposed "acai" or "pomegrante" juices actually containing more of a cheaper fruit juice.  To avoid this high sugar juice drinks, read the ingredient list carefully, and try to select single-fruit juices.


Juice Cocktail:  Beware of "Juice Drink" and "Juice Cocktail."  Similar to the paragraph above, this drinks are being marketed as juice, but are really just flavoured sugar water.  Many of the manufacturers that are marking their products to busy parents with active kids, as an alternative to pop, might as well be selling us pop.  Many of the "juices' containt less than 20% fruit juice.  Once again, read the ingredient list very carefully, and look for 100% single fruit juice.

Milk Drink: Milk is making quite the resurgance as a health/sports drink right now.  Mianly due to the influx of capitol in research and marketing by the dairy industry.  In many schools (including the one I work in) "Milk-To-Go" vending machines have replaces pop and juice vending machines, endorsed by school boards, and health units, as a healthy alternative.  But once again, careful examination of the ingredient and nutrient lists reveal the truth--a conspicous absence of actual milk in these products--Yoo Hoo being one of the wors--and a high amount of sugar. For many, the first ingredient is actually water, followed by high-fructose corn syrup.  Partially hydrogenated soybean oil actually comes before nonfat dry milk on the ingredient list.

Beware of actual milk, as well, though.  While there is not room in this post to discuss the possible negative health impacts of dairy milk, check out a previous blog on Milk.

For those who are consuming milk, though, be sure to stick to the organic variety, such as milk from Liberty, Organic Valley, or Hewitt's Dairy.  That way you will stay clear of unneeded steroids, growth hormones, and anti-biotics, and be sure to be drinking milk from grass-fed dairy cattle, with a higher amount of vitamin B-12, and as well some essential fatty acids.  Also consider switching to organic goat milk, that has less casein protein and more whey protein, closer to human milk than cow's milk.


All Natural Flavors:  This is an unregulated term.  For example, 7UP brags that it is now made with 100% natural ingredients.  What changed?  They switched from carbonated water to filtered water, from citric acid to "natural" citric acid, and from calcium disodium EDT to "natural" potassium citrate.  Here's a kick in the pants, though, 7UP is still sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, one of the worst sweeteners for your body out there.   The calorie count and sugar count between the too is almost identical.

A much better option is carbonated water, or seltzer, with lemon or lime.  Or some of the organic carbonated fruit juice or sodas made by such companies as "Blue Sky", or only occasionally, as their calorie counts are still pretty high.


Unhealthy Healthy Choices:  Do not let a name fool you, for a company call call itself pretty well whatever it wants.  "Healthy Choice" is a prime example.  This manufacturer of pre-made dinners in a box even provides some nutrition stats on the outside of their boxes to attempt to add some legitimacy to their name--stats such as 430 calories, 9g fat, 600mg sodium. But what is not on the front of the box, but the back in the nutrition info is the 29g of added sugars or the 6 different forms of sweeteres used to give their "un"healthy choice Sweet-n-Sour chicken the same amount of sugar as a snickers bar.

Remember what dinner is supposed to taste like, and it is not desert.  Check the nutritional info for all information, fat, calories, protein and sugars, and look at the fine print, that is where companies "hide" the information that they do not what you to know, not on the front of the box in big letters.

Technically True, but...: I love claims like "no butterfat" or "no cholesterol"  Great, must be healthy, right?  Wrong.   Tufutti is one of many culprits here.  While technically true, Tofutti does not contain butterfat or cholesterol like its rival ice cream does, it may be irrelevant information, as Tofutti is not made with diary, and therefore can't have butterfat or cholesgterol.  Check the ingredient list and nutritional info however, and you will read that this ice cream substiture does have 15g of fat and 16g of sugar, equivalent to ice cream.

So you need to ask yourself, how come your are looking at this non-dairy ice cream alternative.  Are you vegan?  Lactose intolerant?  Worried about your waist line?  Check our Soy Dellicious, Soy Dream, or Rice Dream products for low-calorie, non-dairy cool treats.  And if the dairy is not an issue for you, check out soe of the lower calorie ice creams on the market, such as Breyers Double Churn.  And as always, read the ingredient list and the nutritional info when comparing products.




Almost Real Food for Kids:  How about the claims on made food products geared towards kids: "made with real chicken" or "made with real cheese."  Krap, what else would they be made with?  Fake chicken? Fake cheese?  Yes, there is actually real chicken in many "nugget-shaped chicken patties", but check out what else is in them: textured soy protein, modified food starch, etc.  The macaroni with "real cheese" also contain filler such as maltodextrin.  Hint, if a product claims to be "made with real" anything, read the ingredient list to see what else it is made with....Stick to products with as few ingredients as possible.  Chicken nuggets should be just that: chicken, bread crumbs, and oil.



Cheese-less Cheese Pizza:  I love cheeseless pizza.  But mine does not use a cheese substitute. Many cheeseless cheese pizzas are using some problematic substitutes, like partially hydrogenated soybean oil with 5g of nasty trans fats.

Beware of "flavoured" products too, as that is a sure sign that whatever it is flavoured to taste like, it has none of that in it.  Strawberry flavoured?  Nothing strawberry in the ingredients.

Guacamole has Avacodo, right?  Well, not all. Some pre-made guacamole "dip" actually has less than 2 percent avocado.  The rest is green goo full of fillers and chemicals such as: modified food starch, soybean oils, locust bean gum, and food colouring.  The word "dip" is your first clue that something is amiss. Want some Guac?  Mash up a ripe avocado in a bowl, add a little salt, and a little lemon or lime juice--basic guac, and full of the heart-healthy, satiating fat you want and need.


Natural and Unnatural Fruit:  Not a lot of regulation out there regarding the terms "natural" and "real." Trace amounts of an essence or extract of fruits technically counts as natural.  So, when buying a fruit cereal bar, while technically fruit may be in the ingredient list, is is probably after the unnatural fruit flavours such as HFCS and corn syrup. Want something that is quick and easy to eat on the go?  Check out bars made with nothing more than dried fruit and nuts, such as Larabars.


Trans-Fats Free?: Many snack food products such as chips and cheetos are making "Zero gram trans fat" claims.  In the U.S. while the FDA allows manufactures to make this claim when their product contains less than 0.5g of trans fat per serving that .49g of trans fat can quickly add up. So, just because the bag says "0g Trans Fat" does not mean you can eat the whole thing, because then it is no longer "trans fat free:

Low-Fat Bread/Wheat Bread:  Here is a ploy to get your to buy bread. Bread has never contained much fat.  This claim is to distract you form how much more sugar than fiber a bread has.  And wheat bread?  Almost all breads are made with wheat flour.  But is it refined (wheat) flour, or whole-grain whole-wheat flour.  Many of these bread are full of unpronounceable additives, chemical and preservatives.  Bread should contain water, flour, and yeast.  Check out the nutritional value, do not worry about fat, but look for more fiber than sugar, and as few ingredients as possible.


Reduced Fat but....Some products have a fairly high fat content, and that is okay, because it is one of the good fats, and this fat satiates our appetite so we end up eating less, and consuming fewer calories.  But with the "low-fat" craze the last few years, many products have seen their fat content decrease, but their sugar, filler, and calorie content increase, to compensate for the taste loss from the fat loss.  Dairy products such as yogurt, and peanut butter are excellent examples.

Some peanut butters have replace the good fats from peanut with maltodextrin, a cheap carbohydrate filler.  So if you consume this reduced-fat peanut butter, it means you are trading in the healthy fat from peanuts for empty carbs, double the sugar, less protein, and about the same number of calories.

Peanut butter should be just that: peanuts (and maybe some salt...)
 

  Cereals: Lightly sweetened is a relative term, and once again, an unregulated one.  Lightly compared to a candy bar or lightly compared to water?  Some "lightly sweetened' cereals marketing themselves to the health conscious or those looking to loose weight actually contain 14g of sugar, from 5 different sources, and end up having more added sugars than the "known" sugary cereals such as Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, or Apple Jacks.  Look for a cereal with less than 10g of sugar per serving, better yet less than 5 in the nutrional value table, and no or minimal added sugar in the ingredient list.  Also choose a cereal with at least 4g of giber per serving.  the sugar-to-fiber ratio is key here, as the ratio should be no higher than two-to-one.