More Misleading Food Labels

More die in the United States of too much food than of too little. ~John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society

Here are more misleading food label tricks from the Women’s Health magazine article, the “18 Worst Packaged Food Lies”.

Some products use sneaky serving sizes so they can boast, “100 calories a serving!” But check the number of servings listed on your bag of chips, candy bar, etc. Is it 2.6 or any number other than one? Who doesn’t eat the entire bag, or bar, or “individual” frozen pizza? On many cooked foods the official serving size is very small, usually a 1/2 cup for mashed potatoes, stuffing, pasta and similar carbs. I typically eat two or more of these “servings”. My wife & I laugh at processed foods that say "feeds 6-8".

Watch out for fake foods. When something is "strawberry-flavored" or “cheese-flavored” the flavoring will be 100% artificial; i.e. no strawberries or cheese. I once saw a product labeled “authentic pancake syrup”. What does this mean? It was hoping you would think “100% maple syrup” but that product contained no maple and was all sugar. Another product labels itself as “original pizza” and shows a lovely crust covered in cheese and sauce. But there is a reason this product is “original pizza” instead of “cheese pizza”; the “cheese” is imitation mozzarella made from soybean oil. It contains no cheese at all.

“Zero gram tans fats” does not mean trans fats free! Manufactures are allowed to round off so anything less than 0.50 grams is officially zero. To check if a product has trans fats, look in the ingredient list for the words "partially hydrogenated", "shortening", or "interesterified".

The fat fake-out will claim "25% less fat than regular product X". But since fat gives food flavor and texture, something is needed as a substitute. In some cases fat is replaced with maltodextrin, a cheap, carbohydrate filler with empty carbs. Sometimes extra sugar and/or salt supplies the missing flavor. Check the calorie count. You may find that the substitutes are no healthier than the original fat.

"Lightly sweetened" is another unregulated phrase. The Kellogg's Smart Start Cereal is "lightly sweetened" with more added sugars per serving than Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, or Apple Jacks.

Organic junk food: organic originally meant produce grown without “non-organic” pesticides, insecticides and herbicides. It was sold as healthier and so the word organic became equated with healthy. But this is carried to extremes with Kraft Original Macaroni and Cheese labeled as "USDA organic". Does it matter that the refined flour and powdered cheese is “organic” and then mixed with chemicals in the box? For more information, see The Truth about Organic Food.

Bottom Line

"Food companies are only as honest as the labeling laws force them to be," says a University student in the Chicago Business story, What is 'Real Kraft Cheese'? It notes that “real Kraft cheese” is processed cheese (made in a laboratory, not on a dairy farm) from natural and synthetic ingredients.

The story mentions several food labeling lawsuits:

A woman in California sued Kraft for a “guacamole dip” that contained less than 2% avocado. Kraft’s response? Change the label to a “guacamole flavor dip”.

Quaker’s Strawberries & Cream and their Peaches & Cream Oatmeal contain neither strawberries nor peaches but instead dried apples and artificial color. When challenged in 2001, the labels were changed to indicate artificial ingredients (but the false names remained.)

Ben & Jerry’s had to drop their “all natural” claim when it was discovered that some ice cream contained hydrogenated oil and artificial flavors.

Aunt Jemima Blueberry Waffles mix contains no real blueberries. In 2005 the company agreed to mention “imitation blueberries” on the front of the package.

In General Mills’ Betty Crocker Stir ‘n Bake Carrot Cake Mix, the carrot powder appears last on the ingredient list AFTER salt, cinnamon, red dye and other additives. The company changed the package to say, “with carrot flavored pieces.”

Misleading Food Labels

Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork. ~English Proverb

Women’s Health magazine has an excellent article on the “18 Worst Packaged Food Lies”.
Always look at what a product has in it, not what it’s “free” of. For example, “Fat Free” does not mean “non-fattening”. Most "fat free" foods are empty-calorie junk foods with 100 percent sugar and processed carbs. In the cartoon above from http://www.xkcd.com/, a product advertises itself as “asbestos free”. Hopefully ALL products are asbestos free so this is just an empty claim to boost sales.

"100% juice pomegranate blueberry” should be read as 100% juice containing some pomegranate and blueberry. The majority of the “juice” is made from apples or white grapes and is little different from sugar water. (See below) In my family we buy 100% juice made from one fruit (i.e. pure pomegranate) and then dilute it 50/50 with Diet 7-Up or similar low calorie mixer. When I was on a diet in college, one of the restricted foods was fruit juice. Whole fruit is healthy and you get pulp and fiber eating apples, etc. But fruit juice packs a lot of calories, can be consumed in bulk, and does not fill you up. Drink it in moderation.

Beware of any product that calls itself a “food” or “drink”. These are words of last resort to hide the fact that the product as little real content and is mostly chemicals. Beverages labeled "juice drink" or "juice cocktail" are primarily sugar water (corn syrup, etc) with a little juice (18%) for flavor. Yoo-Hoo "Chocolate drink" looks like chocolate milk but is really water, high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil. Nonfat dry milk is listed as the ninth ingredient. A “cheese food” has very little cheese in it. Likewise Macaroni & Cheese “made with real cheese” must contain some cheese but there is no law saying how much or how little. Most of the cheese flavor and texture will be artificial.

The phrase "All Natural Flavors" is not defined by the FDA and means very little. High-fructose corn syrup is a “natural” super sweetener made from corn via some serious chemistry and lab processes. Just because a chemical is extracted from a “natural” source does not make it safe or desirable.

Another unregulated term is “Healthy”. The product line "Healthy Choice" did not pass any tests to earn this title. There is no guarantee that a "Healthy Choice" meal is actually healthy.

Bottom Line

Never trust the product labeling on food; it’s designed to sell you. Look instead at the ingredients list and the calories/fat/etc. The ingredients are listed in order of most content to least and will give you a clue as to whether you are buying “food” or chemicals. But even the ingredient list can be deceiving. Sometimes an ingredient like sugar is broken up into different types to avoid being number 1 on the list. Be worried when you see corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup and glucose and other sugars all listed separately.