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February 15, 2011 Posted by Allison in Nutrition Guides

Some important tips on food label claims

Food packages have two types of consumer information required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Nutrition Facts section defines a serving size and describes the weights of fat, carbohydrate and proteins in a serving. This represents the daily Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for a 2000-Calorie diet. This can often seem a bit confusing to the non mathematician. The second type of consumer information is the List of Ingredients which contains the basic components of the product in order of decreasing weight. Since the basic components must be listed, products containing ingredients consisting of several components must list the components in parentheses. For example "xanthan gum" (a natural thickener). Manufacturers sometimes add notes about an ingredient, e.g., "BHT (a preservative)" in an attempt to explain what it is you are consuming. (by the way, BHT is found in many foods and is a preservative that keeps the food on the shelf for long periods of time. BHT s fat-soluable and the Webster definition of that is "Fat-soluble compounds are often insoluble in water" Our bodies are mostly water... how would this product break down inside our system?" Food labels have a lot of technical information that is hard to interpret. You almost have to be a math wizard to figure out the serving size verses the amount of fats, fiber and calories listed. We found many products with discrepancy's in serving size, and ratio of components. Who is responsible for checking these labels? I advise to just go straight to the list of ingredients. If you are not sure what a particular ingredient is, "Google" it. If you cannot pronounce it and it is listed on your favorite food, chances are... it's not food. Be careful of enticing marking for food labels on promises of great taste, "non-fat", "fat-free", "sugar-free" etc. Refer to the ingredients list to decide for yourself as to how healthy a product is. Look for "Irradiation Label" This symbol indicates that the food product has been treated with ionizing radiation. This has been in effect since 1986. The FDA began radiating fresh ice burg lettuce and fresh spinach to try and prevent Salmonella and Escherichia coli infections. Despite their efforts, the conditions of high production farming prevents illumination of infectious diseases. Choosing small farmers and always washing your fruits and vegetables has proven to be the best prevention of contamination.

Radura Symbol

Warning 100% Natural / All Natural What would you expect when you buy a package of "100% Natural" You would expect the product to contain only natural ingredients, right? Make sure to read the ingredients to make sure. If you see "vegetable oil" this consists of partially hydrogenated cottonseed and/or soybean oil and this is produced at high temperatures in chemical plants and is essentially NOT natural. These miss labeling is allowed because the Food and Drug Administration has not considered what can be claimed as "Natural" In other words, the FDA is not going to try to define the word "natural" anytime soon. Unfortunately, this means that consumers will continue eating synthetic ingredients like hydrogenated fats with their "100% Natural" food products. Statements like "Nothing Artificial" or "No Artificial Ingredients" could mean that the product contains all natural ingredients, but these statements are also abused by manufacturers in the same way as the "100% Natural" claims. LOOK CLOSELY at your ingredients! "All Natural" and "No Artificial Anything". If you look carefully, you will see that "No Artificial Anything" is actually a trademark registered in the U.S. Patent Office, and contains the registered trademark symbol "®". A trademark can be placed on any product and its purpose is to provide brand distinction and sell sell sell. A trademark is not a nutritional claim, even though it may look like one. The list of ingredients MAY contain "high fructose corn syrup" which does not exist in nature, but is derived chemically from corn starch. Modified corn starch is starch that has been modified chemically to stabilize its gelling characteristics. Once it has been modified, this starch is not a natural ingredients. The lesson here is to ignore the front of the package and read the list of ingredients. Look for fancy words that make high stakes claims. For example yogurts that claim to have "Bifidus Regularis" or other words you have never heard of before. That particular word is a trade name totally made up by that yogurt company to make you think that you are consuming something healthy for your digestive track and in reality you are NOT. Warning / Sugar free , Fat free and Non- fat The word "sugar" is defined as: 1) sucrose which is a white crystalline sweet carbohydrate normally extracted from sugar cane and sugar beet, or 2) a generic term that includes any of a class of water-soluble carbohydrates with various degrees of sweetness. Using the first definition, manufacturers can claim that a product is "sugar free" if it contains less than 0.5 grams of sugar (sucrose) per serving. However, it can still contain other sweet carbohydrate mixtures such as molasses, dried cane juice, cane concentrate, high fructose corn syrup, or a variety of sugar alcohols like erythrol, mannitol, xylitol, etc. Sugar alcohols occur naturally or may be produced by hydrogenation of monosaccharides and disaccharides. Be careful of "sugar alcohols" which are listed as sorbitol, mannitol, and maltitol in the ingredients. Some foods claiming to have no fat contain monoglycerides and diglycerides as primary ingredients (margarine). The FDA regulations require reporting fatty acids expressed as triglycerides and are not considered "fat", and information about the saturation of their fatty acid components is omitted from the nutrition label. When you read the ingredient label and see that the first five ingredients are "water, vegetable mono- and diglycerides*, salt, rice starch, gelatin". Water and salt, of course, have no calories. The monoglycerides and diglycerides are not fat by the strict definition of fat, although the asterisk has a footnote that says that this ingredient "adds a negligible amount of fat", meaning triglycerides. The weight of the monoglycerides and diglycerides (and their Calories) are ignored because there is no reporting requirement. The companies provide tricky ratio's to make you think that what you are eating is fat free. It is a very cruel joke played on people who count calories trying to lose weight. Eating "fake food" is more fattening and dangerous than consuming whole foods containing fats in their natural state. Those fats feed your brain and produce sharp minds. The fat free, sugar free misinformation fools consumers and also organizations like the American Heart Association that certify products for nutritional content. To be certified by the AHA, a product serving must: 1) be low fat (less than or equal to 3 grams), 2) be low saturated fat (less than or equal to 1 gram), 3) be low cholesterol (less than or equal to 20 milligrams), 4) have a sodium value of less than or equal to 480 milligrams for individual foods, 5) contain at least 10 percent of the Daily Value of one or more of these naturally occurring nutrients: protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron or dietary fiber. If fatty acid glycerides were counted as "fat", which they really are, the product would not qualify for certification even if the product had only half of the glycerides estimated above. But often margarine has the AHA heart check mark and is recommended as a "heart-healthy food" in the grocery shopping list interface of the AHA web site. After analyzing what "fat free" means and the list of ingredients, we can clearly see that this product is neither "natural", "fat-free" or "healthy". It is no wonder that we get fat. We don't get accurate nutrition information from the manufacturers. This is an incredibly dangerous world of labeling we live in. Why is it that the FDA doesn't pay better attention or try to protect us from correct information? The FDA also approves the regulation of pharmaceutical regulations and quality assurance. So wait a minute... If billion upon billions of dollars are made every year on pharmaceutical sales why would the FDA promote healthy whole foods? It looks like the loop feeds itself. The government subsidizes farmers who produce GMO, chemically treated oils and non-organic crops, the FDA approves them and encourages labeling to state health claims, people get sick and get diseases, get on prescription drugs and everyone down the line makes money. Money drives the decisions of every one involved and if you think you have no control THINK AGAIN. You can't stand around blaming others, take control of what you put in your mouths, your families mouthes and your communities mouthes. EVERY TIME YOU BUY FOOD... YOU ARE CASTING A VOTE. Written By Someone Who Cares Allison Sute
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