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Nutrition Label Deception

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Cover of "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual"

Cover of Food Rules: An Eater's Manual

Nutrition labels. Most people – including myself – have been led to believe that the most important part of food labels are the nutrition facts (Calories, Fats, Sat. Fats, Carbs, Sugars etc.) While these are important, yes, it is also crucial to check the ingredients and here’s why.

Trans Fats have recently been introduced to us as more detrimental to our health than saturated fat. The USDA finally found it important enough to make manufacturers label  how much trans fat is in each product. Great, right? Wrong. I bet you didn’t know that the USDA allows .5 grams of trans fat, otherwise known as hydrogenated oils, per serving and still allow manufacturers to claim 0 grams on the nutrition facts label. (Or maybe you did know because you’re brilliant!)

Here’s an example of this:

To the left is the Nutrition Facts label for Coffee Mate non-dairy creamer. Next to trans fat there is a nice big 0 g. If you scroll down and look at the ingredients list, you’ll notice that the third – I repeat- third ingredient is partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cotton seed oil aka Trans Fat. So, the reason why they are allowed to claim 0g is because they have .5 g or less per serving. Let’s think about this logically. A serving size is 1 tbs and I’m sure most people use more than a tbs. Each tablespoon has .5 gr or less, so when you calculate how many servings per bottle – it’s false to say there are zero trans fats! Another good example of this is peanut butter (like skippy or jiff.) If the ingredient list has more than peanuts and salt – it’s clearly not natural so, READ INGREDIENTS!!!

According to Michael Pollan’s “Food Rules,” rule number 3: “Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry – Ex: Ethoxylated diglycerides, Cellulose, Xanthan gum.” and rule number 6: “Avoid food products that contain more than 5 ingredients.” This can be very difficult to do, but the point of this is to try and make as much food as possible at home. Most products that have over 5 ingredients have been extremely processed in order to have a longer shelf life – even products that claim “natural” on the box. The bottom line here is – it’s always better to make it yourself than to buy it off a shelf!

My friend Lea shared a delicious recipe – she made up and likes to call accidentally Indian – with me that I will now share with you! It’s in season too 😉

Ingredients:
Sweet Potato
Green Onions
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Steamed Lentils (Trader Joes sells them)
Tofu
Spices: Garlic Powder, Rosemary, Salt, Pepper
Butternut Squash Soup (low sodium)
The Process:
1. Saute a chopped sweet potato with green onions and garlic
2. Chop up a handful of asparagus and mushrooms
3. Add in about a cup of steamed lentils
4. Use tofu marinated in beet juice  http://recipesforjuicing.information2know.com/tofu-     marinated-in-russian-beet-marinade/ (Optional if you’re not a tofu fan)
5. Use garlic powder, rosemary, salt and other spices (maybe tarragon)
6. Make sure you don’t throw in all the ingredients at once. First sear the potatoes with           rosemary, salt, and garlic until they are soft.  The other vegetables take much less time     to soften so you want to put them in afterwards to avoid overcooking.
7. Add some butternut squash soup (low sodium from trader joe’s)
    stir and turn off heat, keep lid on and let simmer for about 10 minutes and SERVE!
Quote:
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Suess
Read- read -read Ingredients 🙂
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