Labels - The Deception and The Truth

I just finished the 4th of 4 presentations at Allstate reviewing food and nutrition.  I covered the science behind how your body responds to food and why we want to eat lean protein, quality carbohydrates and good fats with every meal.  I taught them how they can create gentle waves of blood sugar release instead of tsunami's by eating frequently and eating all three of the macronutrients listed previously.  But the most interesting part of the presentation is the "label reading" portion.  As I lead into this part, I remind my audience that the food companies are not concerned with the health of their families . . . they are concerned with the health of their own bottom line.  They want you to purchase their product.  So it is up to each of us to learn how to read through the deception that the labels often contain.  Serving size is the first thing that companies use to create a picture that may or may not be reality.  When you pick up a bottle of juice or pre-made protein drink, be careful to note if the servings per bottle is 1 or 2 or even 2.5.  The rest of the values listed on that label are all keyed into the serving size.  If sugars are listed at 28 grams and the servings per bottle is 2 -  you will consume 56 grams of sugar if you drink the whole bottle (which it's really designed for you to do)!  My husband picked up what looked like a single size serving of cottage cheese - it was a cup, and it looked very much like a yogurt container.  But the serving size was 1/2 cup, so that little container was really 2 servings.  The sodium in the serving size was 350mg . . . so if my husband would have eaten the whole thing (which he would!), he would have gotten 700mg of sodium in that one little serving of cottage cheese.  Remember that you should try to keep your sodium intake to 1500-2000mg each day . . . so he would have had about half of his total intake in that yogurt-sized portion of cottage cheese!  If you look at a certain popular cracker, the serving size is 4 crackers.  Who eats just 4 crackers????  The first part of the label states that a serving size has 0 grams of trans-fats.  We all know by now that trans-fats are bad for you because your body does not recognize this man-made substance as food.  But then if you read further into the actual ingredient list, you see that these crackers have "vegetable shortening, partially hydrogenated soybean oil" - otherwise known as trans-fats.  Every single cracker you eat actually has trans-fat in it.  The label can say "0 grams" because the company is allowed to "round down" for the amount in the serving size of 4 crackers.  And be aware that the "non-fat" cooking spray you use is actually 100% fat.  The serving size is 1/3 or 1/4 of a second!  It really is important to become a savvy shopper and understand all that you are putting into your body.  Learn to read labels and understand what they are truly telling you.  Not all that is put on sale as food is good for you. And you really are what you eat!