More on Deceptive Labeling and Marketing of Food

Many people have become aware that whole grains in our food have various health benefits. But you need to read labels: some foods that may claim "whole grain" on the label are only partly whole grain, and the whole grain may not be the majority of the grain in that product. You need to read the ingredients list on the label, keeping in mind that ingredients are listed in the order of their quantity (that is, the ingredient used in the biggest amount is listed first, etc.).

Also, keep in mind that "multi-grain" is not a benefit unless those grains are whole. Five or six or eight or ten grains, if none of them are whole, would be less beneficial than just wheat, if that wheat is whole.

A bread store that I know of was making and selling a rather tasty bread. The ingredients list included "HFCS." What is that? you might wonder. High fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup, possibly wrongly, has gotten a bad wrap. It looks like the bread store was deliberately attempting to conceal from customers what was in its bread, especially considering that high fructose corn syrup is not usually known as "HFCS" and thus customers might not immediately recognize that ingredient from the abbreviation.

Many health-conscious food buyers believe that sugar should be avoided. So I see, as an ingredient, "evaporated cane juice," or "evaporated cane juice crystals." Anyone who knows how ordinary cane sugar is made should understand that "evaporated cane juice" is simply cane sugar—no more and no less. Someone has just tried to call it by a name that won't raise the red flag for customers that the term "sugar" would.

Besides such attempts at less-than-honest labeling of ingredients, labels contain many misleading claims. Cheerios will lower your cholesterol—if you eat it three times a day for weeks on end. I personally don't like monotony in my food and would not be able to stand eating the same cereal even once a day, every day.

And there's a yogurt that is supposed to be beneficial to your digestive tract. Again, if you heed the fine print, you've got to eat it three times a day to reap the benefit.

And many foods, like energy bars, power bars, Vitamin Water, etc., are simply useless and will not deliver the claimed benefits. Many products fortified with vitamins don't have enough of some or all of the vitamins that are in them. If you are concerned about your vitamin intake, it's much wiser to take a multivitamin pill every day. Many of those will deliver the "daily value" of most of the vitamins that they contain. (If you take a multivitamin, you may want to avoid breakfast cereals that have added vitamins; there's such a thing as too much of some vitamins, and you may risk taking in too much.)

Just one more word of caution. Many of the products that tout their fiber content achieve the fiber numbers by adding substances like inulin, which are considered "isolated fiber." These substances are believed by many to not carry the benefits of natural fiber like that found in products like whole grains and unaltered fruits and vegetables. So-- get your fiber from grains and produce, not from yogurt. Oh, and don't fall for the term "natural" on labels. Natural is a term that's not regulated, so it's basically meaningless. And it certainly does not have to equal "beneficial" or even "harmless." Consider that snake venom and poison mushrooms are "natural."

Update, September 15, 2011
Here's an article on health claims for some food products that have been given various additives.
http://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition-pictures/6-snack-foods-that-make-health-claims.aspx#/slide-1

Update, October 14, 2011
Here is another article which says that labeling (of cereals, in this case) as "natural" is meaningless. And it mentions Kashi being bought by Kellog, which I mentioned in an earlier post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/14/natural-cereal_n_1011113.html
There are two things in this article that I don't agree with. First, they like Frosted Flakes for having vitamins added. I, for one, don't want vitamins added to my cereal because (1) I take a multivitamin/mineral tablet and taking in vitamins added to my cereal might mean I'm getting too much of something; and (2) I prefer the supplement tablet to vitamins and minerals added to my cereal because I can better control what I'm taking in, and there are more vitamins and minerals in my supplement tablet.
Second, cereals becoming organic might be beneficial to the environment but I don't think it would make my breakfast cereal healthier. I advocate eating things like plain old oatmeal--which can be bought cheaply, is quick to cook (maybe 1.5 min), and is as simple and healthy as it gets. Note: NO added anything, unless I choose to add something (which I do, sometimes: raisins--definitely a plus from the taste standpoint and perfectly healthy--and maybe cinnamon).

Update, October 19, 2011
Here's a quote from a comment on food which is not as healthy as the consumer might be led to believe:

[W]hy do we need a website to track this kind of news [about sugar]? It goes way beyond sugar. Take blueberries, for example. Food Identity Theft inspected the labels of Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Blueberry Muffin Cereal, Kellogg's Special K Blueberry Cereal, General Mill's [sic] Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal, Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin Mix and Smucker's Snack 'n Waffles Blueberry. Despite their names, the site found that the only blueberries in the mix are "blueberry flavored crunchelets" (sugar and blue #2 lake food dye) and "blueberry bits" (red #40 lake and blue #2 lake food dye), among other pseudo-berry flavors. ["Lake" is a term in dyeing.]

Update, April 30, 2012
The latest issue of Nutrition Action HealthLetter, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, has (1) an evaluation of cold cereals; and (2) an article that discusses the mechanisms in our brain whereby gratifying foods--for example those with considerable sugar or fat content, that is, "manufactured" foods--actually are addictive very much like illicit drugs.
Copyright © 2011 by Richard Stein