FitSugar

What Do You Look at First When Reading a Food Label?

FitSugar — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:00:00 -0800

We all have different food needs. So when it comes to label reading, someone trying to lose weight may first look at the calorie amount, while someone training for a marathon may look at how much protein a product contains. What about you?

New Country of Origin Food Label Law

FitSugar — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:00:00 -0700

I like eating seasonally and locally, but I am a realist too. I know much of the food we all eat comes from outside the US. Remember the tomato and hot pepper salmonella scare? Food regulations vary from country to country and many are not as strict as ones in the US, which can pose some health risks. Now a new food label law comes into effect that will require companies to state where certain products such as meat, produce, and other products came from. Now you'll be able to tell if the foods you buy are imported or not, and from which countries they were produced.

The country of origin labeling requirement has been years in the making, and now that it's here, the law is a little confusing since not all foods are covered under the new regulations. Certain foods that are processed such as roasted peanuts, breaded chicken, and bacon are excluded from this law, as are bags of mixed lettuce. Retailers have six months from now to learn and implement the new labeling rules, so you should begin seeing labels in stores relatively soon. This mandatory labeling could help sell products since many people will appreciate knowing their apples came from a local farm. The food origin labels might also discourage people from buying products from unsafe sources, such as with the recent issues in China. The thing is though, consumers have a right to know where their food was grown or packaged. I'm in full support of this law and look forward to the day when the government requires all food retailers to state where their foods come from. What do you think? Are you happy about this new law or not really phased by it? Will these new labels affect how you shop?

Source

COOL News! Food Labeling Law Goes Into Effect

FitSugar — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:00:00 -0700

Do you know where your avocado is from? That question is easier to answer now as the new food labeling law goes into effect this week. The so-called COOL law requires producers of fresh meats, many fruits and vegetables, and assorted other products to state clearly on packages where the food originates.

As part of the Obama administration's efforts to improve food safety, labels on meat products will even state where the animal was born, raised, and slaughtered. However, the law doesn't apply to many foods that are considered "processed," including roasted nuts, bacon, breaded chicken, and bags of veggies containing more than one variety.

Still, the COOL indicator will help us know if produce hails from a place where food safety has come into question, such as when we were told to avoid hot peppers from Mexico and certain states' tomatoes amid last year's salmonella outbreaks. I hope it's just the first step in revamping our faulty food-safety system. Are you looking forward to seeing the new labels?

Source

FDA Rethinks "Smart Choice" Food Labels

FitSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:00:51 -0700

When the concept behind the "Smart Choice" food labels was introduced, it sounded like a good idea. The goal was to provide easy to digest nutritional information on the front of food packages and the products bearing the label were to meet health guidelines - low calorie count, low in sugar. But when the green check mark made its debut this August, it seemed rather fishy that the cereal Fruit Loops, which lists sugar as its first ingredient, could score the "Smart Choice" badge of approval.

The FDA is cracking down on the use of the label and many large food corporations, like Pepsi-Co and Kellogg's, are suspending their use of the symbol while the FDA creates guidelines for nutritional labels used on the front of food packages. Although no time line was given, the FDA has plans to design a standardized food labeling system, to replace the many voluntary nutritional labels that have been created by the food industry, supermarkets, and nutritionists. The FDA will be working with food manufacturers as well as nutritionists to create a label that helps shoppers select healthy foods. My suggestion: don't rely on the front or the back, read the ingredients and the nutritional panel. Or shop for whole foods and forgo products with labels entirely.

Food Labels Revealed!

FitSugar — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:00:00 -0700

Recently I came across an interesting article on how to read between the lines on food labels. The most effective way to learn how to read a food label effectively is to learn what manufacturers may be doing to deceive us, the consumers. So here is a great list of deceptions from Mike Adams on NewsTarget.com:

One trick is to distribute sugars among many ingredients so that sugars don't appear in the top three. For example, a manufacturer may use a combination of sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup solids, brown sugar, dextrose and other sugar ingredients to make sure none of them are present in large enough quantities to attain a top position on the ingredients list (remember, the ingredients are listed in order of their proportion in the food, with the most common ingredients listed first).
Another trick is to pad the list with minuscule amounts of great-sounding ingredients. This trick is called "label padding" and it's commonly used by junk food manufacturers who want to jump on the health food bandwagon without actually producing healthy foods.
A third trick involves hiding dangerous ingredients behind innocent-sounding names that fool consumers into thinking they're safe.
Did you know that the name of the food product has nothing to do with what's in it? These names are designed to sell products, not to accurately describe the ingredients contained in the package. A perfect example is Krafts Guacamole Dip that contains hardly any avocado.
There is no requirement for food ingredients lists to include the names of chemical contaminants, heavy metals, bisphenol-A, PCBs, perchlorate or other toxic substances found in the food.
Food companies have also figured out how to manipulate the serving size of foods in order to make it appear that their products are devoid of harmful ingredients like trans fatty acids. The smaller the serving size, the closer they get to the 0.5 g loophole where they don't have to list trans fat at all.

Moral of the story: Read labels carefully, because what you see, may not always be what you get.

Label Able: Vegetable Glycerin

FitSugar — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:30:50 -0700

I was going on a trip and picked up some Kashi TLC Trail Mix bars. I trust their products completely so don't feel it's necessary to read labels before buying them. While in the car, I happened to check out the list of ingredients and saw vegetable glycerin.

If you're curious to know what it is or why it's used keep reading

The New Trans Fat: Interesterified Oil

FitSugar — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:45:00 -0700

As you know, I have been pretty thrilled about all the bans on trans fat happening worldwide, but of course food makers are finding a way to still make food cheap and unhealthy, without the trans fat. Enter Interesterified Oils.

Being confused about it myself, I decided to look to Mr. Seth Braun, natural health expert and author of healthyfastandcheap.com, because he's really done his research on this new type of oil:

Food manufacturers are getting around the trans fat labeling by mixing small amounts of fully hydrogenated oil with liquid polyunsaturate oils and calling “interesterified oil.” They claim that fully hydrogenated oil is healthier. Since there is less trans fat, they can sell this product to food manufacturers for use in commercial dressings, baked goods, candies and anything else that used to have partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list.

In plain english, interestification means mixing fully hydrogenated oil with liquid polyunsaturate oil to produce a consistency similar to partially hydrogenated oil, which is the source of trans fats. The solution to the trans fat problem; from the manufacturer perspective!

So what's the moral of the story? Read those labels folks. Food makers are in the business of not only making food, but also in the business of making money. If it has interesterified oils listed, chances are it has trans fat too.

Red Light District: Prostitutes and Now Fat

FitSugar — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 04:00:00 -0800

Do you have a hard time figuring out what is what when it comes to buying food at the grocery store?

The good folks at the Food Standards Industry (FDI) in the United Kingdom are trying to make it as easy as green, yellow and red when seeing what you are putting into your body. With traffic light colours (not colors, we are talking about the UK here), you can see at a glance if the food you’re looking at has high (red), medium (yellow) or low (green) amounts of each of these nutrients in 100g of the food.

The theory is that if you see a red light on the front of the packaging, you know the food is high in something we should be trying to cut down on, like saturated fat. Some people are opposed to the new traffic light labeling saying that it is demeaning and patronizing.

Looks like the UK is bringing easy back. So next time you are browsing the shelves at Tesco, look for the traffic lights.

Traffic Light Labeling: A Good Idea?

FitSugar — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 07:30:00 -0800

The FDI (Food Standards Industry) has introduced traffic light labeling on foods in the UK.

If we want to eat a healthy diet, one of the key things we should be doing is trying to cut down on fat (especially saturated fat), salt and added sugars.

The FDI system allows you to see at a glance if the food you’re looking at has high (red), medium (yellow) or low (green) amounts of each of these nutrients in 100g of the food.

What do you think about it?

What's the Diff: Omega-3s vs. Omega-6s

FitSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:00:10 -0800

Omegas are all the buzz right now, and it seems like everywhere you turn, new foods are being enhanced with this essential fatty acid, or labeled as an excellent source. What people don't know is that there are different types of omegas, and eating too much of one kind can actually be harmful to your body.

Omega-3s are found in flax seeds, walnuts, cod liver oil, and fatty fish like mackerel, lake trout, albacore tuna, and salmon. Fish are the best sources because they are high in two particular fatty acids that are crucial to good health, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid).

Then there are omega-6s. These fats are found in eggs, nuts, chicken, and vegetable oils such as corn, soy, safflower, and sunflower oil. Omega-6s are high in LA (linoleic acid), which is converted by the body into GLA (gamma-linolenic acid), and then further broken down to AA (arachidonic acid).

Do you know which type of omega fatty acid we should be eating more of? To find out, keep reading