These days, you need to be an expert in nutrition, chemistry and marketing, and up to date with all the latest research and trends, to understand the ins and outs of food labels. Different terms are being tossed around to make the product seem healthier and more appealing. Unfortunately, a lot of the food industry’s terminology is very vague and misleading, and there is little that will protect you from consuming food that could actually be harmful. ‘Big Food’ just wants to sell you products, so their strategies are far from moral.
Here are a few tricks and lies commonly used by the food industry that feature on food labels:
All natural doesn’t mean that much. The FDA doesn’t define ‘natural’ and there is a lot of room for interpretation. A food labeled as ‘natural’ may contain preservatives, have high fructose corn syrup or be injected with sodium. The most it can mean is that the product doesn’t contain any added colors, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.
Fortified is a very popular expression too. Different snacks and cereals often boast they have been enriched with vitamins or other nutrients. This makes some people believe they are the healthier choice. The truth is that the fortification process is a very questionable one. Vitamins and minerals are produced synthetically and contain a number of unnatural ingredients that can be very unhealthy. Often, ammonia is used in the process.
Farm-raised fish might seem a good choice, and you think you’re making an environmentally sound decision. However, farm-raised often means that fish are bred in pools and treated with antibiotics and pesticides to make them survive the overcrowded and polluted conditions. Read my previous article why you should never eat Tilapia and other farmed fish.
Free-range can also be a misleading term, as it makes you believe that hens are freely roaming and pecking around. There are actually no requirements for the amount, duration, and quality of outdoor access. It just means that the birds have some sort of access to the outside. Just 5 minutes a day is enough to fulfill the criteria.
For added freshness sounds like the manufacturer is trying to do you a favor by keeping your food in good shape. What it really means is that different preservatives have been added to kill fungus and keep food fresh for an unnaturally long amount of time. These preservatives can also mutate human cells and start cancer. Read more about artificial preservatives in my article about the top 10 worst ingredients in food.
Serving size is sometimes set unrealistically low to make the product seem low in fat and calories. The FDA’s recommendations on serving size are outdated. For example, for ice cream, the serving size is one scoop. Not many people will actually stop at one small scoop, so if you’re counting calories, you probably need to increase the label’s calories.
And lastly, you should be aware that in the US genetically modified food doesn’t need to be labeled as such. You are sold food that can be full of mutant genes, herbicides and pesticides, and there is no way you can tell. It might even be labeled to sound healthy!
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Health
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