Tag Archives: food labels

Organic Food Labels Misleading Consumers to Make Unhealthy Choices

The LA Times recently reported a dangerous food myth that has been circulating throughout the health-conscious community as of late: cookies and chips are tastier, have fewer calories, less fat and more fiber when they are organic.

Organic food labeling has been a hot button issue lately as the nutritional and medical communities often find themselves at odds with food manufacturers that market foods in such a way that consumers perceive organic products as healthier choices.

“There are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there when it comes to food marketing,” said Lisa Moskovitz, RD, CDN, of Halevy Life. “For example, Twizzlers are labeled as ‘low-fat’ but they have the same amount of carbohydrates as the average loaf of bread. And that is just one example of how [consumers] are being misled by labeling.”

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Posted on April 28, 2023 by Maris

How Fast Food Buzzwords Fool Consumers

Fast food restaurants try really hard to fool us into thinking their foods are good for us, as counter-intuitive as that may be. It starts with the images in their commercials where the foods are glistening with each slice of tomato, lettuce, and grilled chicken breast or burger nicely stacked on top of each other.

Then you have some of the buzzwords that they use. This part really gets under my skin because it’s such a brazen way of being deceptive – walking that tight rope of legality, while using words that imply the other words that they can’t actually use!

So, when a fast food commercial wants to tell you that their foods are healthy, but obviously can’t, they go for the next best thing: words like wholesome, fresh, all-natural, premium, or 100 percent whatever. (more…)

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Jason

Get the Truth About What You Eat at FoodFacts.com

FoodFacts websiteA simple trip to the grocery store requires you to make many decisions when you want to eat healthy. Organic or natural? What food additives should you avoid? What products are the best sources of protein? Or vitamins?

To help you navigate all these questions, FoodFacts.com has created the Food Facts Health Score. This score takes into consideration the nutrition facts on the label plus the quality of the ingredients and boils all that information down to one number, from one to 100.

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Posted on March 8, 2024 by Margaret

Teens Ignore Nutrition Info on Fast Food Labels

Sometimes I enjoy reading about studies that “look us in the eyes” and tell us the obvious. Take this study led by an NYU School of Medicine investigator: calorie labels do not affect teenagers’ decisions on what they choose to eat at fast food restaurants.

Young people feel indestructible. That’s why they smoke, do crazy skateboarding tricks, or eat foods that are not good for them. Part of the feeling of dietary invincibility is a lot of young people have metabolisms that can burn calories like crazy. Unfortunately, diets are getting so bad that more kids aren’t able to hold onto their youthful energy or take advantage of a high metabolic rate.

In the study, researchers found that the teens noticed the calorie information just as often as adults. However, they didn’t react in a positive manner as often as the adults. (more…)

Posted on February 16, 2024 by Jason

New Nutrition Labels Up Front About Food Facts

front of package nutrition labels This week, the food industry unveiled a new initiative to make it easier for consumers to make healthy choices about packaged foods. Food packages will soon start to carry food labels on the front, called “Nutrition Keys.” The front-of-package labels were created to “promote healthier lifestyles,” said Pamela Bailey, the president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

The nutrition keys will start to appear within the next few months, but will not be fully implemented until the end of the year. The keys will show the number of calories, in addition to the amount of sugar, salt and saturated fat per serving. The keys can also include two other nutrients, like vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, potassium, fiber, iron, calcium or protein.

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Posted on January 26, 2024 by Health Buzz

Vitaminwater Claims Ruled Inaccurate in the UK

On Wednesday, British courts ruled that Vitaminwater, a popular line of flavored water products, has too much sugar to be accurately described as nutritious. While UK courts ordered brand owner Coca-Cola to stop publicizing the claim, US legislators have already decided that Vitaminwater claims violate FDA rules.

Now, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority said that Coca-Cola broke the rules by describing the products as “delicious and nutritious” in a 2024 ad. According to the CBC News,  consumers wouldn’t expect a drink marketed as nutritious to have between four and five teaspoons of added sugar.

“The term ‘nutritional value’ is the loophole many manufacturers use to sell their products without outright lying,” said Mindy Haar, MS, RD, CDN, Director of the Graduate Program in Clinical Nutrition, New York Institute of Technology. “Most associate the term ‘nutritional value’ with ‘healthfulness,’ yet any food with more than zero calories, whether these calories are from carbohydrates, protein or fat, does provide some nutrition.”

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Posted on January 22, 2024 by Maris

USDA Announces New Bio-Based Product Label

Sample Eco labelAmong the many products clamoring to get attention for their “green” credentials, real or purported, it can be difficult to tell which items are genuinely eco-friendly from the green-washed impostors. To help discerning  consumers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s BioPreferred program announced yesterday that they will be offering a new, voluntary seal for bio-based products.

Similar to the USDA Organic label and the Energy Star seal, the new “USDA Certified Biobased Product” seal aims to steer consumers towards products that are made from renewable resources. “Today’s consumers are increasingly interested in making educated purchasing choices for their families,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan in a press release. “This label will make those decisions easier by identifying products as biobased. These products have enormous potential to create green jobs in rural communities, add value to agricultural commodities, decrease environmental impacts, and reduce our dependence on imported oil.”

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Posted on January 20, 2024 by Margaret

Meat and Poultry to Have Nutrition Labels by 2024

uncooked chickenThe USDA announced Wednesday that nutrition labels will be required on 40 cuts of raw meat and poultry. The measure will go into effect on January 1, 2024. It’s designed to help Americans make informed nutritional choices about the most popular cuts of meat, like brisket, tenderloin steak, boneless chicken breast and ground turkey.

“More and more, busy American families want nutrition information that they can quickly and easily understand,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “We need to do all we can to provide nutrition labels that will help consumers make informed decisions.”

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Posted on December 30, 2023 by Health Buzz

What the Labels on Your Meat Really Mean

When it comes to the meat and poultry aisle in the grocery store, how much do consumers really know? Words like “mechanically separated” and “all-natural” can be convoluted, so we talked to some of the experts at Coleman Natural Meats to decode some of the most confusing labels that we see on meat packaging today.

Certified Organic: While organic food arguably offers some health benefits that conventionally prepared foods do not, an organic designation is not one-size-fits-all. In the US, any item that was made entirely with certified organic ingredients can be labeled “100% organic.” Products that contain 95% organic ingredients can use the word “organic” on their labels.  Any products that contain 70% organic ingredients, can be labeled “made with organic ingredients.”

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Posted on December 8, 2023 by Maris

Misleading Health Food Claims Confuse Consumers

Don’t you like it when you see, say, a candy product that is labeled “50 percent less fat”? First… 50 percent less than what? Second, it’s candy!

Over the years, as certain dietary concerns became the latest trends (think low-fat, low-carb, etc.), food manufacturers have tried to keep up the best they can while still selling a palatable food product. Maybe the best example is after the low-carb craze really took hold. While it’s died down a little, and research has come out to show that whole grains are a necessary part of a healthy diet, people are still carb-conscious.

Food manufacturers do a dance of deception around the labeling regulations, usually staying within the law, but still doing a good job of misleading consumers. (more…)

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Jason

Kroger Makes Healthy Shopping Easy as 1-2-3

NuVal in KrogerThe nation’s largest supermarket chain, Kroger, has rolled out the NuVal nutrition scoring system to 23 Lexington, Kentucky stores to help shoppers make healthier food choices. The scoring system gives each food a score, from 1 to 100. Foods with high scores are more nutritious, foods with low scores are less. Shoppers also have the added confidence that the ranking system is provided by a third party, not food or beverage producers. NuVal was developed by nutrition and medical experts from top health organizations and universities.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the NuVal scores is how poorly some of the “health” foods ranked against regular snacks. For example, Garden of Eatin’ no salt added blue corn chips actually score better than an Odwalla Fruit smoothie: the chips earn a score of 52 while the smoothie gets a 49.  Fresh fruits and vegetables get scores near to 100.

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Posted on October 7, 2023 by Margaret