Warning: Your food label could be lying to you!

 I am so devastated.

So, so devastated!!!!

The Today Show tested a bunch of supposed low cal ice creams to see if the nutrition information is accurate for them. I've raved about Artic Zero for eons. It advertises 150 calories for the ENTIRE PINT. As a long-termer stuff like that can be helpful.

 

Welp...no more. Their tests revealed that my beloved Chocolate-Peanut Butter has 68% MORE calories than the label says. So instead of 150 cals for the entire pint, it has 252 calories. Now I never eat an entire pint and granted that's still way lower than most pints of ice cream but...sigh.

I also learned this a.m. that food companies don't HAVE to be 100% accurate with nutrition labels under the law. Now this doesn't surprise me. I have always been skeptical that every single item of a particular kind of food has exactly the same amount of calories. There are too many variables. I always figured it was an average and so I tend to choose lower cal per serving foods (if it is lower cal that means even the high end of the range isn't that bad for it to average out so low).

What I did NOT know however is that BY LAW food companies can be off by as much as 20% and still sell us that food with that inaccurate nutrition label!!!

Ugh. Another testament to clean eating, I say. I'm about to stop eating pre-packaged food altogether. If they are allowed to lie about this, what else are they allowed to lie about?

Well, I know they are allowed to leave certain ingredients off the label even when the ingredients are in the product.  I can't remember right now exactly when they are allowed to leave something out but I think maybe it's when it's an ingredient that would be obvious that it's in the product and/or when there is less than a certain amount of the ingredient in the product.  They are also allowed to just say things like "natural flavors" instead of telling you what ingredients make up those natural flavors.

I was aware they didn't have to be 100% accurate about calories and I would guess that goes for all nutritional stats, too, doesn't it?  I mean, if they can be off about how many calories, then they must be off about how many carbs or how much sugar or how much protein or whatever, right?  I didn't know they were allowed to be off by 20%, though.

That is correct ... the percentages are OFF on most of the labels by a fraction most of the times....

When I was at the OH conference in October my friend Heather had a question re. the labeling on the '0' calories flavored water/drinks/vitamin waters that she had found out had actually 60-80 calories while labeled '0' calories ... one of the panelists explained about the % off in reporting .... 

Pre-packaged food (unless you are clean eating and making it yourself) have a ton of sodium and other things to keep it together .... SMDH.... another convenience I stopped using three years ago...

I had the opportunity of watching a documentary a friend shared with me .... some of the things that I found out that I had been eating was a rude awakening ...especially my beloved chicken SIGH...

Clean eating is the way to go ... ...

Wha****er is labeled as zero calorie that allegedly has 60-80 calories?!?  NO percentage of allowance would account for that.

Lora

SOME flavored waters labeled '0' calories does not mean there are really '0' calories in it .... I agree with you NO PERCENTAGE SHOULD BE ALLOWED .... my friend Heather had a bottle of flavored '0' calories water that she bought (empty) to the conference with her ... she had discovered in trying to get below goal prior to her abdominoplasty that she was drinking these as she did her fit bit and was losing no weight .... the moment she researched and found out that these do in fact have 60-80 cals per bottle that she was journaling at 0 calories ... drinking 3-4 bottles of this per day and recording at 0 calories made a lot of difference ... she eliminated these and the last 10 pounds came right off .... along with another 10 ... I can't remember the label on her bottle ... I want to say Fruit2O but I am not sure...  I will ask her to come clarify .. I don't want to mislead... I know I had been drinking vitamin water labeled '0' calories and was retaining fluid ... it had calories from the artificial sweeteners which was not a big deal ..the bigger deal was the sodium content for me adding up...

The thing is we all have to be mindful ... as it looks we pretty soon have to grow our own food and dig our own fresh water wells LOL ...

Read this...

Why Flavored Water isn’t the Best Choice

While flavored water might taste delicious and promise to deliver essential vitamins, remember there’s a reason why your water tastes good. It’s most likely due to sugar and unnatural ingredients. You might think that your refreshing drink, such as Vitamin Water or other flavored waters is a healthy alternative to soda and juice. But did you know that one bottle of Vitamin Water packs in 125 calories and 32.5g of sugar? That’s a hefty calorie and sugar count for a beverage, especially one that will add calories to your lunch but fail to fill you up. Vitamin Water, and other flavored waters on the market, also contain crystalline fructose, which is basically liquid sugar.

Flavored Waters with No Calories

There are many flavored waters out there that promise to be diet friendly, and boast a low calorie count or no calories at all. The problem with these is that many contain artificial sweeteners and unnatural ingredients to keep them tasting delicious without delivering calories. Unfortunately, these are often not the healthiest drinks to ingest either. Also, the more beverages with artificial sweetener you consume during the day, the more your body will crave sugar.

The company Vitamin Water has developed 2 lower calorie options–Vitamin 10, which contains 10 calories a serving, and Vitamin Zero, which contains zero calories a serving. Vitamin Zero claims it contains no artificial sweeteners, and is instead sweetened with Truvia and fructose. While this isn’t the best choice out there, it is a better choice than a regular Vitamin Water and can pass as a suitable lunchtime beverage.

Another healthy flavored water on the market is Crystal Geyser Sparkling Mineral Water, which comes in flavors like lemon, lime, orange and berry. While this calorie-free drink is naturally flavored, if you look closely at the nutrition label, you’ll notice it contains 35mg of sodium per serving. So, while this beverage is also a healthier choice than many flavored waters on the market, it still is not the best hydration you can reach for.

The Best Beverage

The healthiest beverage to quench your thirst always has been, and always will be, plain old water. Water ensures proper hydration and cellular function, and these health benefits are delivered with no calories or unnatural ingredients. Drinking water also flushes out impurities and will help keep your waistline in check.

If water is too boring for your liking, or if it’s hard for you to consider such a drab beverage a fitting lunchtime drink, spice it up with some lemon or lime. In fact, you can infuse any fresh fruit into water to give it a punch and add some natural vitamins and flavor.

Wow that is frustrating and maddening, both from a general consumer standpoint and from the standpoints of a post surgery RNY consumer and a person with food allergies. I know that the FDA doesn't have a uniform standard for the amount of gluten that is allowed to be in foods to enforce the gluten free promise on some food labels so that is bad enough, but knowing they could even be allowed to be wrong by as much as 20% on the label is even worse. That 20% probably applies to not only calories and fat content but other ingredients. This is why I'm leaning more toward making and eating things homemade (such as Greek yogurt and air popped popcorn instead of microwave, which is full of additives and presevatives) and avoiding anything processed including ice cream.

I think all of the additives and flavorings in foods may be legal but haven't been shown to be healthy long term. I don't think its a coincidence that so many people who are otherwise healthy are getting cancer and skin problems like eczema etc. I've recently switched a tons of things out for the healthy version and am already seeing an improvement in my itching and eczema. I know that our bodies don't know how to digest many of the additives and fillers that are put in food to enhance its flavor or color or texture and our bodies rebel with digestive and skin problems.

I wonder how long food companies will be allowed to be inaccurate and whether consumers will get smarter and stop buying prepackaged food or whether it will continue and people will get sicker and fatter? Time will tell.

Oh, many food additives have not been proven safe.  At some point, I forget which year, but the FDA basically decided that all additives that had been in use prior to that time would just be considered safe unless/until proven otherwise.  So many of them have never been tested for safety.

I didn't know that either! My assumption is that because food additives are allowed in foods under the supervision of the FDA, those additives have been proven to be safe for most consumers. That is so scary. Bugger to me for being so naive.

I'll have to see if I can find that info.  I'm not sure where I read it.  But basically the FDA decided that while new additives needed to be proven safe, it would be too costly, time consuming, whatever to require companies to go back and test those additives that were already in use.  So yeah, many have not been proven safe.

And you know about genetically modified foods, right?  GMO's?  Which are illegal in most Eurpoean countries but are commonly used here, and producers aren't required to label products so consumers have no idea if a product contains GMO's or not?

I know about GMOs but am not sure I know all of the foods that fall into this category. I do avoid consuming GMOs as much as possible by buying organic foods that contain no added hormones etc and eating the produce from my garden. All of the meat that I buy is free range and certified to contain no added hormones. I'm sure there is tons to learn about this as far as pesticidees and hormonal injections go. It's scary. Its much healthier to eat foods that are as close to nature as possible to avoid all this mess. I try to eat like my ancestors did 100 years ago, no packaged foods at all. it's not easy!