Food Labels: Fact or Fiction

It’s a proven fact that a manufacturer is in business because they make a profit off the items they sell to the consumer. This has been a known fact since the inception of manufactured food.

And up until the last twenty years or so, manufacturer’s weren’t held accountable for their process, or the additives they put into your food. Then we began the health revolution, and suddenly everyone wanted to know what was in their food, and if what healthy for them to consume. In fact, had the consumer been aware of the level of sugar being added to manufactured cereals during the early part of the 20th century, they might have refused to purchase or eat something so poor in nutrition and high in tooth decay.

As soon as the manufacturer’s began to deal with that situation, along came the claims of “fat free” and “reduced fat” and the manufacturer’s were forced to prove their claims. The FDA ruled that if they were going to claim those facts, they must label so that proof could be established.

But are the labels really true and accurate? Or do the labels simply tell us what we want to hear. Are they accurate about the fat content? Well, let me ask you, when was the last time you took your bottle of ranch dressing and had it analyzed for fat content? Exactly. You the consumer aren’t going to analyze anything. You’re going to believe whatever those label states as fact.

Food labeling and accuracy are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, but that doesn’t always keep everyone honest, or true to a simple process of determining what the product you’re buying contains. Many times, the product will provide two to three servings per package. The obvious take, on the consumer’s part, when buying a snack cake or candy bar, is that the single package should constitute a single serving. This is not the case many times. The manufacturer in order to appeal to the consumers sense of sight, makes it appear as though the contents of the package would be a single serving, simply by the way the package is sold. In reality, the serving size is ½ the package or a third of the package. This is a deceit times two. Naturally, as you read the calorie content, you don’t stop to check the serving information, because a product sold for a single serve consumer, should naturally be a single serving, right? Wrong.

This is where we must carefully watch our food labels, read between the lines, and check the fine print. Quite often, we only see what we want to see. We don’t notice that we’re being deceived until much later, or sometimes not at all.

To a consumer just concerned with the calorie content because of weight issues, this is not a life threatening situation. For the diabetic patient, the improper reading of the package contents can mean the difference between normal healthy functioning, and a dramatic increase or drop in blood sugar levels. As you can see, the manufacturer’s who are regulated do their very best to benefit themselves, not the consumer.

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