Deconstructing Food Labels – Part 3 Tricky Front of the Package Claims
Deconstructing food Labels – Part 3 Tricky Front of the Package Claims
Part 1 included food label requirements:
Name of the food
Name and address of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor
The amount of food in the container
Nutrition facts
Ingredients lists
Any potential allergens
Part 2 included Nutrient Claims, Health Claims, and Structure-Function Claims.
Today’s topic includes some of those fronts of the package claims that are true but possibly misleading. In addition, because these fronts of the package labels tend to follow trends, what may be upfront today may differ a year from now.
For example, “keto” overtook “paleo” in popularity and trendiness. However, note that neither of those terms means much other than the food company is following trends. For example, I saw a cereal package at Costco several years ago in which it stated that the cereal was “caveman approved.” Seriously. Not likely, right? As if cave dwellers cared about their diet – they probably just wanted to eat something. They were following a trend there for sure.
Because there is NO definition of paleo-food or keto-food, I don’t even know how to address those terms. And why is the paleolithic period the one time in history in which the diet trend chooses to look at, and did the paleo people eat coconut flour and avocados if they lived in North America? And the ketogenic diet, created in 1918 for children with severe epilepsy, really doesn’t get more than 10-20 grams of carbohydrates in their diet no matter how much fiber they eat.
The top terms I am addressing today include:
Natural
Organic,
Made with whole grains,
Low carb,
Reduced-fat, low-fat, fat-free
No added sugar
Natural, All Natural, and 100% Natural
Okay, first of all, ignore this term. As of today, there is still no standard definition for the term natural. It is very loosely regulated. It applies strictly to meat, poultry, and eggs. The rest of the foods? Good luck. It means that there are no artificial ingredients or added colors, and it is only minimally processed. “Minimally processed” means that there is no significant alteration of the food. Clear, right?
So my Natural Cheetos – yum, are a light yellow rather than bright orange. And they are made from corn – which to me, Cheetos have never looked like corn maybe if I squint hard, I will see it.
That Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread from Jif? It still has peanuts plus sugar, palm oil, along with salt and molasses. None of those ingredients are artificial and not healthier than regular creamy peanut butter (not “spread” – if a product has less than 90% peanuts cannot be called peanut butter). Compare the ingredients of Jif Creamy Peanut butter: peanuts, sugar, molasses along with hydrogenated vegetable oils, mono and diglycerides, and salt.
And if we want to get down to it, even things like Bud Light could be called All Natural since it only has barley, rice, hops, and water. Though I don’t know if that would qualify as “minimally processed.”
The bottom line with this term – don’t be misled into thinking the product is “healthier” because of the “natural” label.
Organic
I went into this subject extensively in this earlier post, The Truth About Organic Food.
“Organic” is only referring to how food is grown or raised and not a term to indicate whether a food is healthy or not. For example, an organic brownie is still a brownie and not better because of the organic ingredients used. And organic wine is still wine.
People insist these foods are healthier for them, but not accurate. Potentially more beneficial for the environment, organic sugar is still sugar, and organic butter is still butter.
Made With Whole Grains
This term is very misleading. A food made WITH whole grain is not a whole-grain food.
If you make a batch of cupcakes and throw in a tablespoon or even ¼ cups of whole wheat flour, a whole grain, then you can claim that your cupcakes are “made with whole grain.” That’s a fact. You cannot say they are whole grain cupcakes, though. It is all in the wording.
If you want whole grain products, look for the whole grain stamp on your food, or look at the ingredients for the FIRST ingredient to be a whole grain.
And learn more about whole-grains vs. refined grains in this previous post, Go With (Whole) Grains.
Low-Carb
While people use this term all the time, there is no definition. I’ve had people tell me they are avoiding carbs, and they proceed to order a salad and a glass of wine. And, if you don’t know why that is odd? Any foods that come from plants have carbohydrates.
So, what is low carb? I don’t know. And when people tell me they eat low carb, I have to ask what they mean because there is no definition. It turns out that a low of people who claim to eat low carb is still consuming about 50% of their total calories from carbs. And if someone is eating plant-based or any form of vegetarianism, their diet can’t be low carb.
On a food label – it has no definition or meaning.
Reduced-Fat, Low-Fat, and Fat-Free
As mentioned in the earlier post (part 2) under Nutrient Claims, these two terms are strictly defined.
Low fat: 3 grams or less of total fat per serving
Fat-Free: less than 0.5-gram fat per serving
And, not included in that post, but still defined, reduced-fat means that a product has 25% less fat than the same regular brand.
But, before grabbing for that reduced-fat, low-fat, or fat-free version of a food, double-check the Nutrition Facts between the original version and the low-fat or fat-free version.
Reduced-fat peanut butter has less fat (healthy fat), the same number of calories, more sugar, and more sodium.
The low-fat cookie or fat-free muffin may be the same number of calories compared to the regular version of that muffin. The reason is that they just swapped out more sugar and salt.
No Added Sugar (and sometimes even No Sugar)
While this is fine, I know many people want to reduce their sugar intake. And not it isn’t poison. If it were, then those darn sugar ants would all DIE!
However, I have seen labels that declare no added sugar, not the same as no sugar.
There are plenty of natural sources of sugar, including lactose in milk (all yogurt will have naturally occurring sugar).
I came across a recipe for an “ice cream” with no sugar and only three ingredients. Two of the ingredients were dates and bananas. There is nothing wrong with that, but those two items alone have a lot of naturally occurring sugar.
Additionally, if something sweet is screaming no added sugar, I would check those ingredients. I’ve seen labels that state this but include sugar alcohols or other sugar alternatives such as sucralose. That is fine, but I also want to point out that some people get a “laxative” like effect from consuming sugar alcohol. So be careful and don’t wander too far from home.
And ingredients like honey, agave, and maple syrup are still added sugars.
That is a lot to cover today – but I will continue with more front-of-the-package terms in my next post. So let me know what you want to know.
