Food Labelling 101
Summer is just around the corner and you should be seeing the benefits of how good FIGHT CAMP makes you look and feel. Hopefully you should be less stressed and more focused. Keep at it folks… you’ve only got 2 weeks… Remember the next camp starts on the 13th of April so if you have not already secured your place please email us info@fightcamp.org.
Now for those of you who need that extra push we are now offering personalised nutrition coaching which will include weekly check ups, weigh in’s and skinfold assessments. If you are interested in this package please email us for more information.
I was asked this week if I could give you guys a bit more information on Food Labeling. So here you go…
Why label food?
In theory, food labels help us make informed – and, ideally, healthier – decisions. Having food and nutrition information available to us in a quick-reference format may help us choose the best foods for our needs. However, food labels may not accurately reflect what’s in the package. Be a critical consumer and don’t always assume what’s on the label is useful or accurate. Processed or pre-packaged foods will have the most variation as company data may not always be accurate. Food labels also ensure that manufacturers are accountable and transparent; in other words, that what you see on the label is what you truly get. If you’re concerned about what’s in your food, stick to whole foods.
Label types
There are two general types of labels:
- ● Legally required labels: These are governed by laws and regulations around packaging and the provision of nutritional information. Usually these are on the back of the package and give information like ingredients and nutritional value.
- ● Industry-provided labels: These are placed at the manufacturers’ discretion. Usually these are on the front of the package.
What counts as “label-worthy”?
Food labels typically give information such as:
- ● Ingredients (including specific additives, such as coloring, emulsifiers, and preservatives)
- ● Nutrition information (e.g. calories, grams of fat)
- ● Suggested serving size
- ● “Best before” date
- ● Where the food comes from
- ● How to use and store the product
Ingredients
Generally, ingredients appear in order of proportion. In other words, if bread is mostly wheat flour. Then wheat flour will be the first ingredient.
Genetically modified (GM)
Rules vary from place to place about whether food can/should be labeled as organic and/or genetically modified (GM). Some regions, such as Australia, China, the Czech Republic, and South Korea, will label and/or strictly regulate GM ingredients. The EU goes one step further and also requires labeling of meat produced with GM feed. Generally, in countries that do label GM foods, anything with more than about 0.5-3% GM ingredients has to be labelled as such.
The Problem With Food Labelling
Terms can be fuzzy – at least to consumers.
Lets take the term “juice” for example. What is “juice”? Well, to most campers, it’s something like the fresh-squeezed liquid from a fruit.However, on the label, you might see:
- ● “__ juice” (e.g. “60% apple juice”)
- ● “diluted __ juice” (e.g. “diluted apple juice”)
- ● “juice drink” or “juice beverage”
- ● a picture of the fruit
See any of these and you might expect… juice. Except it’s not. The product could easily be a blend of juices, something that was freeze-dried and then reconstituted, or something made with a little bit of juice, and topped up with water and flavouring.
Terms may be meaningless in real life, with a normal serving size.
Something labeled “low fat”, for example, may qualify as such because it has only a few fat grams per serving. But the serving size recommended may be ridiculously small. If you ate a normal-sized portion, you might get much more fat (or sugar, or sodium, etc.) than the label specifies.
Terms may use different words to name the same thing
For example: What is sugar?
We could all agree that sucrose – aka table sugar – is definetly sugar. But what about:
● glucose?
● high-fructose corn syrup?
●honey?
●molasses?
●rice syrup?
● maltodextrin?
There are lots of food substances that are technically sugary, but that don’t get labeled as such. A manufacturer could put other non-table-sugar substances into a food and label it “low-sugar”. Same holds true for “fat-free” and the use of ingredients such as mono- and diglycerides.
Terms may be purposely misleading or incongruous, to bypass regulations.
Think of “buttery”; “no artificial ingredients”; “light-tasting”; “a nutritious source of fiber”; “made with real fruit”; “part of a healthy breakfast”; etc. Or brand names like “Lean Cuisine”; These don’t mean anything. They conjure up an image that you associate with the product.
Another example is labeling vegetable-based ingredients “cholesterol-free” or sugary candies “fat-free”. These things never had cholesterol or fat in the first place.
Making food labels easier to understand
Unfortunately, the regulation part of many nutrition labels are, arguably, creator-friendly. They consist of information that scientists find interesting, presented often in ways that scientists would find useful.
For instance:
- ● What % of the RDA for calcium does this product contain?
- ● How many fat grams are in here?
- ● What proportion of those fat grams are saturated?
- ● What is the amount of sodium benzoate relative to mono- and di-glycerides?
But perhaps you may want to know things like:
- ● Will this food make me fat?
- ● Does this food cause cancer in lab rats?
- ● Should I feed this food to my kids or is is this gonna send them crasy?
After all, you probably don’t think in terms of grams and percentages when you eat. (And arguably, you likely shouldn’t.) If you are like me and don’t find lists of numbers all that useful or informative. All you really want to know is: Should I eat this or not?
Checklist when buying foods with food labeling
- Think about what information is most useful to you as a health-conscious consumer. What is the most important thing for you to know about a given product?
- Look carefully at how products are presented to you. What pictures and words are on the package? What messages do those pictures and words send?
- Observe your instinctive food choices. For instance, are you somehow drawn to foods with nice packaging? With the word “natural” on the package? What features seem to appeal to you in particular? Why?
- Test your instinctive response to a food against the label’s truth. For instance, if a food says “heart-healthy” and that appeals to you… turn the package over and check out the ingredients. Does the ingredient list match the “heart-healthy” claim?
- Ask yourself how you “know” what you know. How do you “know” that this food is “better” than that food? What are you using to judge? How much do you trust food companies?
- Slow down. Take a minute to consider how you’re making buying decisions. Manufacturers depend on consumers being rushed, busy, inattentive, and impulsive. Put your mobile phone down, take 30 seconds to read a package, and focus a few moments longer than normal. Why is this product in particular worth your hard-earned dollars?
Right Thats it for now folks, if you have any questions about this email, your nutrition or even the next camp please do not hesitate to get in touch.
