 By David Otto
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Deceptive Food Labels Part 2
In Part 1 I discussed a few ways the food companies hop through the loop holes in the labeling laws to either legally lie or make you think a food is healthier when that might not necessarily be true. Here's the conclusion to Deceptive Food Labels.
SUGAR FREE
Here's a pretty good one. Companies sometimes like to put sugar free on something without actually saying the words sugar on the label. They'll use words that end in o-s-e like dextrose, maltose, sucrose, fructose, etc. Or they'll use other words like turbinado which is nothing more than pure sucrose (table sugar) that is un-refined or others like corn syrup, carob powder, sweetened condensed milk etc.
A somewhat sneaky example of sugar free is the sugar free drink pouches you buy in the plastic cylinder. 1/8 of a pouch is one serving and contains 5 calories but the label doesn't indicate where they come from. It doesn't come from carbs, protein or fat so where does it come from? It comes from maltodextrin which is the combination of maltose (a sugar) and dextrose (a sugar) which is a mild sweetener that equals four calories per gram. Expensive grades of maltodextrin actually mimic a starchy carbohydrate but the cheaper grades affect the body just like a simple sugar. I'm willing to bet it's not an expensive grade of maltodextrin in those drink pouches. Also, they actually sweeten the product primarily with the sugar substitute aspartame (which actually has 4 calories per one gram) but there is still a small amount of calories in there. They say to mix 1 pouch with a ½ gallon of water and speaking for myself it takes no time to drink a half gallon of that stuff, which happens to be 40 calories total. Yes, it is somewhat deceptive but it sure beats drinking a sugared cola or a bunch of fruit juice. However, I don't want you thinking I am an advocate of drinking copious amounts of these artificially sweetened beverages either. I won't give my two cents on the artificial sweeteners because I'm not on either side of the fence at this point but if fat loss is the goal then simple sugars should be avoided and if you want a diet soda every now and then I do not see the harm in that despite what others may say.
Here's an abbreviated list of the many forms of sugar you will see on a food label without it actually saying "sugar."
Sucrose, dextrose, lactose (milk sugar which doesn't impact blood glucose levels quite like other sugars), maltose, beet sugar (most table sugar is this believe it or not unless it says "pure cane" on the bag), brown sugar, corn syrup, carob powder, dextrin, fructose, glucose, glucose syrups, high fructose corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, molasses, saccharose, sweetened condensed milk, turbinado. Also, if you see the words natural flavors on the label there's a pretty good chance there is sugar in there. Just be sure to read the nutrition facts label where it lists the grams of sugar and make sure you look at the serving size. By the way, did you know that most 8 oz. servings of fruit juices have more sugar than an 8 oz. serving of regular cola? I know, I know "it's the natural sugar" but where do you think table sugar comes from?
Sugar alcohols are the newest big thing to hit products. The FDA does not label it a sugar because it falls somewhere in between a sugar and an alcohol (alcohol happens to be the simplest form of sugar). Sugar alcohols claim to fame is that they do not spike blood sugar thus they don't initiate as much of an insulin response. That is only partly true. Examples of sugar alcohols end in "o-l" and they are maltitol, xylitol, sorbitol, glycerol, etc. They do actually have less calories per gram than sugar but since they are less sweet than sugar they have to use more of it to get the same sweetening effect. The fact of the matter is that they still spike blood sugar resulting in an insulin spike that will limit the body's ability to burn fat. In turn the net effect of calories from carbs is still about same. Many times you will know there are sugar alcohols in something when the front of the label says "4 grams net carbs or impact carbs, "which for low carb dieters you should only count these when eating this product" (that's what they'll say on some labels). Turn the product around and read the label and the total carbs will say something like 30 grams with 4 grams (the "impact carbs") coming from sugar and the rest from sugar alcohols or maybe other carbs like fiber or starch. That's why the FDA can label it as 30 grams of carbs and only 4 grams of sugar because they don't consider sugar alcohols as sugar. When eating these products, all the calories, carbs, fats and protein count!
NO CHOLESTEROL, NO TRANS FAT, ZERO CARBS
To me these are rather funny and you will think the same thing after you read this. These statements are put on products by the food companies to make the consumer think it is a healthier choice when in reality these products never had these things in them to begin with. When you see vegetable oils, most pasta, potato chips and many other products labeled "no cholesterol" they never had cholesterol in them in the first place. These are all plant products; cholesterol only comes from animal products. So if a product is made with or cooked in an animal product then yes, it will have some cholesterol (like egg noodles).
No Trans Fat is the new one they are putting on products that never had them in the food in the first place. Trans Fats are actually hydrogenated oils which in a nutshell have no benefit nutritionally and are pretty much harmful to the body. Putting No Trans Fats on a package of frozen beef tips is a way to make consumers think this is good because it doesn't have those bad fats in them. They never had them in there in the first place!
Another one I would like to mention that's not in the heading are products that in their ingredient labels list hydrogenated fats without actually saying those words on the label. They'll say something like margarine which is a hydrogenated fat plain and simple.
My favorite is the zero carbs they put on protein products like fish, packages of chicken and many other products. Raw fish or canned fish does not and never has carbs in it and nor does raw chicken. Since this low carb boom, food companies are capitalizing big time on the consumers false belief of carbs being bad so they put zero carbs on everything that never had carbs in them in the first place! They're not lying but I think it's silly. So now you can laugh when you see products like these.
CONCLUSION
There are other ways the food companies deceive you but I think this provides a pretty clear picture of the labeling laws and the loopholes the food companies jump through to market their products. Let this information empower you to make better choices because now you understand what's going on out there. Your best bet is to shop primarily around the perimeter of the store or in a natural market. Moral of the story: THOROUGHLY READ THE FOOD LABELS!
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