The Skinny Code

In a world where our food is being processed more and more and our people just seem to grow fatter and fatter, it makes sense to pay extra close attention the nutritional and ingredients label on any packaged food you buy. Unfortunately these labels oftentimes don’t tell the true story of what’s inside and are crafted to make you believe products are healthier than they actually are. Let’s dig into a few of the more misleading ones.

Misleading Label #1 - “Natural” don’t mean a damn thing

The word “natural” is the bad boy of nutritional labeling and when you see it I guarantee you think that this product must be better than another product that doesn’t use the word natural to describe it. But you need to know that the word natural means NOTHING. It has nothing to do with a food’s nutritional content or ingredients and the word is not defined or regulated by the FDA. When you see the word “natural,” the label must explain (and of course that will be in super tiny print) what the manufacturer believes makes the product natural.  But this reasoning could really be anything which makes the word useless in determining if a product is actually  healthy.  Don’t trust it.

Misleading Label #2 - Zero could be more than zero

There’s a little loophole on the nutrition facts label. If any food has 0.5 grams or less of a given nutrient it can be listed as zero grams on a nutrition facts label (and in the marketing lingo). What’s the big deal, you may ask as 0.5 grams is pretty small, right?  True, but when you couple this “round down” with unrealistically small serving sizes, these zeros can really start to add up. In fact, if you make the stated serving size small enough any bad product can start to look good, right? Great if you can abide by that serving size. Can you? I know I can’t. One final word of note, if an ingredients label contains the ingredient partially hydrogenated oil, even if the label says says it has zero trans-fat, it has trans-fat. Be cautious.

Misleading Label #3 - “Made with real fruit” and “contains real fruit” can mean barely any actual fruit

Did you know that there is no standard that requires a minimum amount of real fruit or fruit juice to be in a product for it to claim that it contains real fruit? There could be just one drop of real fruit juice in a drink to make this claim. And if you think this problem just lies with fruit then think again. You can take this “made with real XXX” problem to any product. I was reading the label on some cheese puffs last night (don’t ask…) and the label said “made with real cheese.” Yeah, like one cheese-like substance far down on the ingredients list. That shit had barely any real cheese in it but they were sure rocking that claim. Bottom line, if you see this “real” claim, check the ingredients label and if you see chemicals vs. the real stuff in the top ingredients you can pretty much ensure the product has barely any of the actual “real stuff.”

Misleading Label #4 - “Whole grain” is marketing bullshit and is not the same as “100% whole grain”

Just like the fruit and cheese example discussed above, the same holds true for whole grains. If you see just the term “whole grain” it could have only a pinch. If you are eating a grain product, look for the qualification that says 100%.

Misleading Label #5 - Fat free, low fat, gluten free, you name it is often associated with products that are naturally this way

I picked up a bag of frozen chicken breasts at my local Costco a few months ago and was amused to see the marketing claim that my raw, frozen chicken breasts were marketed as “gluten free.” Well, no shit Sherlock, of course they freaking were. It’s raw chicken for crying out loud! Come on… Just because gluten free is a popular buzzword these days products that never contained it feel the need to talk about it. It’s so misleading! 

Misleading Label #6 - “Enriched” doesn’t mean much of anything and “fortified” is a damn cop out

Like the word “natural,” you’ve probably seen the word “enriched” and think that something good has been added to this product. Yeah, something good that was stripped away in the processing has then been artificially adding back in to make it nutritionally “whole.” It’s actually a really bad word and you should try not to eat anything that has to be enriched in the first place. Furthermore, if something says it’s “fortified” that means that more vitamins and minerals have been added beyond the amount that was stripped away. Sure, that may be modestly better than “enriched” but it’s still pretty damn processed if you ask me.

I prefer to get my vitamins and minerals naturally from the food I eat.

How about you?

Related Posts:

• Serving sizes are bullshit (and why you need to care)
• Cut the crap: but what’s your definition of crap?
• Cut the crap (part 2): strategies for actually cutting it