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The Twisted Truth in Labeling

Ingredients listed on food product labels are there to accurately inform consumers about what goes into the product... right?  Unfortunately, not always.  Some unscrupulous manufacturers are using “trickery” on ingredient labels to deceive otherwise savvy consumers into thinking their products are healthier than they are.

Take sugar for instance.  In order to keep sugar from appearing in the top three ingredients, many food manufacturers will break it down into a combination of various forms of sugar i.e. sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup solids, brown sugar, dextrose etc.  Since ingredients are listed in order of proportion – highest proportions first, and down the line - breaking an ingredient into multiple forms would allow that ingredient to be much lower on the list, thereby deceiving consumers into thinking the content is much less than it really is. 

Sodium nitrite is a common ingredient in processed meats and is a proven carcinogen. It is documented to cause brain tumors, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer and other cancers.    Consumers have become aware of this and have avoided products containing sodium nitrite.  Now, “Nitrite-Free” and “Naturally Cured” products are showing up; but  these may be just as dangerous.  While the nitrites used are coming from sources like celery and cane sugar juice, there may be strains of bacteria being  added  to transform  the  harmless nitrites  back   into   the  dangerous ones consumers are trying to avoid.  Since manufacturers are not technically adding nitrites to the product—they don’t have to be listed.  Sodium nitrite is desired by manufacturers because it keeps the products a nice pinkish color instead of the unappetizing grey they would be without it.

Another trick  used to  hide  undesirable additives is by giving them innocent sounding names. Carmine is used as a food coloring.  Sounds innocent enough,  but carmine is made from the crushed bodies of red cochineal beetles.  You probably wouldn’t buy a product that has on its label crushed bugs used for coloring – but that is carmine.

Yeast extract is another safe sounding ingredient.  You’ll see yeast extract listed on many foods on the shelves of high quality health food stores.  Yeast extract is actually MSG –  a dangerous excitotoxin.

How many contaminants are listed on an ingredient label? None.   Wonder why not?  The food industry is not required to list them.  PCB’s, heavy metals, pesticides, and other toxins are not required to be listed. 

One good way to make food sound healthy is to label it, “No Trans Fats”.  The food manufacturers have a clever trick for this one.  Any food containing 0.5 grams or less of trans fatty acids per serving is allowed to be considered 0 trans fat.  This is FDA math in action.  The trick is in serving size.  A product may be loaded with trans fat, but if the serving size is made small enough, the food manufacturer can get the trans fats down to zero.  Check serving sizes for reality.

Here are a few tips for reading ingredients labels:

• Ingredients are listed in order of their proportion in the product.  The first three ingredients are generally the most important.

• If the ingredients list contains long chemical sounding words, there are probably toxic chemicals as well.

• Products made from wheat flour can be called whole wheat, but that doesn’t mean the product is whole ”grain”.  Whole grain flour is less “processed”, retains many of its nutrients, and is a much healthier choice. 

• Brown doesn’t always mean better.  Brown sugar is just white sugar with brown coloring and flavoring.  Brown eggs are the same as white – shell color is the only difference.  Brown bread may be no better than white bread unless it is made with whole grains.   The exception would be brown rice, which is better than white rice.  Once again, less processing, more natural is always the better choice.

• Check serving sizes.  A label with deceptively small serving size is probably hiding something.

• Products that have “sprouted” or “raw” ingredients may be of higher quality and are usually healthier.

• Remember, chemical contaminants do not have to be listed on the label.

• Here is the best tip of all.  AVOID PROCESSED FOODS altogether.