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Reading Past the Labels Written By Mason Medart

I Didn’t Know I Was Eating This!!!

Processed food, almost every American in their lifetime has had a form of processed food whether it is fast food or you bought it from the Grocery store.

The reason why processed food is so popular is that it doesn't go bad for a very long time, And it usually can be prepared in under 10-15 mins.

Wow this is a great thing people must think, in fact 90% of the money Americans spend on food a year is spent on processed food (#1). Processed food is a relief when it comes to quick, tasty meals for families or individuals, but what a lot of them don't take into consideration they just think they are eating what they see on the front of the label or package. Kraft Easy Mac© a very popular

tasty meal that many Americans love to eat.

The first thing that should alarm you is that the cheese, is powder. The First Three ingredients for a product you will see under the nutrition facts are listed from greatest to least abundant and in this case the first three ingredients just for the cheese powder are, Whey (hence the powder texture), Corn Syrup Solids, and Palm Oil. That doesn't sound like natural cheese, and it is also powder so that still is the biggest hint. The Cheese sauce mix also contains less than 2% actual milk. A trick to reading a ingredients label is that if it sounds really long and scientific, it is most likely not one bit natural.

The more ingredients you see that are in parenthesis by a certain ingredient will

have “enriched” next to it, this means something was added to the natural form of it. The more ingredients in these Parenthesis the more processed and less natural it is. The things you see at the bottom of the list are called Additives and are added for things such as shelf life, preservation of flavor and freshness, color, things like that.

Be aware of what you are eating, especially processed foods and to do this it is as easy as reading past corporate disguises on labels and look on the back and you can tell within 30 seconds if what you are eating is processed and how natural it really is. These disguises are very good but as long as you read past the labels, you can see through any corporate disguise.

What Do Food Corporations Do to Get You To Buy Their Product?

There are a lot of American food Corporations out their today, and all of them want to make as much money as they possibly can. That is where you, the consumer, comes in to play. Food Corporations do all they can do to get you to buy their products, because they make more money. When Food Corps. Label one of their products, they are considering the consumer is

stupid, this is why they try to get you to buy their product with big statements and claims on the front of their product.

Some of these claims are “NO TRANS FAT, or FAT FREE” these claims are supposed to get you to buy the product, usually this does. With a claim like 0g Trans fat it is easy to look right through that claim because if there is 9g or less of something in

Volume 1, Issue 1 11.24.09

Table of Contents Top Story & First Sub Story

1

2nd, 3rd & 4th Sub Stories

2

5th Sub Stories

3

Bibliography

4

Special Thanks & Agency Contact Paragraph

5

a product the Food Corp. is  All Facts Mentioned in allowed to round down to 0. this Newsletter are all as So the fastest way to tell if recent as 2005 there is Trans Fat in a Product is look at the ingredients list and if any of them have the prefix hyd that means there is trans fat in their and the company is trying to hide it. An Example of this is Hydrogenated Oils, next time you are buying something that is a processed food it most likely has trans fat in it.

Page 2

Reading Past the Labels

Clever Serving Size Disguise The Nabisco Oreo © “Milks Favorite Cookie” a very popular and delicious desert cookie that can be bought almost anywhere food is sold. Now if a consumer was contemplating whether to buy the more expensive and tasty Double Stuffed or Original Oreo’s © . Nabisco is very clever with this serving disguise, according to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) there has been no law or bill passed by the United States Congress that states a food company has a certain serving size amount. Therefore food companies like Nabisco can make there serving size as scientific and obscure they want as long as it doesn't hurt their chance to sell their product. In this situation of Double Stuffed versus Regular, the serving size for the Original Oreos is 34g which is very specific, but to the point where

the average consumer isn’t going to know what 34g is equal to in Oreo cookies. The Serving size for the more expensive double stuffed is 2 cookies. Now when the average person is looking at these 2 labels they are going to probably assume they are equal in serving size. If you look at the labels on the right you will see that the Double stuffed looks a lot better than the less expensive Original Oreo’s © . This is just what Nabisco wants you to think and if you actually set the serving sizes equal. The Original are 34g which is equal to 3 cookies, and you multiply everything on the Double Stuffed by 1.3 and the serving sizes will become equal. You will see that the Double stuffed are worse, Just another way to read past those corporate disguises.

Original Facts

Dbl Stufd facts

see if a food corporation such as Nabisco here rounded there numbers down which they are allowed to do .

You can follow these easy little calorie conversions which takes only 15 seconds of adding, so 1g of fat = 9 calories, 1g Carb = 4 calories, and 1g protein = 4 calories. So if you end up adding those three things up which you can do on any product, you will find that the cookies have 103 calories and the pretzels 103.5. Another way to read past

the labels and crack that corporate disguise.

100 Calorie Pack?

100 Calorie Packs a great after school snack that tastes good and is only 100 calories! How Great Is That! If only it were that great, each 100 calorie packs calorie varies by what type of snack it is. In this Case we are going to use Chips Ahoy! © and Mr. Salty Chocolate covered Pretzels. Each has a different calories amount, though it is a small difference it can add up. Well how can this be all of them are 100 calories each? If only they were a simple step to

3.5g fat 16g carbs 2g protein

Health Conditions Resulting From Processed Food Consumption In all of the states across the United States each has its own percentage of people that are overweight and obese, these range from the lowest in Rhode Island at 21.5% of the population to the highest Mississippi at 32.8%. Most of this obesity is caused by fast food and processed food. That number could be cut down a fair amount if consumers learned about reading past labels and those corporate disguises that bait these people in. They could care less about what the food does to you when

they make money off of you. Most Processed foods contain a fat called Trans fat which is a bad fat which is not natural and takes the same effects as Saturated fat when it enters your arteries, and will build more body fat and mass.

Trans fat is added in these foods to make them stay fresh on the shelf longer, but to this it puts consumers health at risk. A way to cut down on more unhealthy processed foods, is when you are choosing your product, take a brief look at the ingredients and

the more there are the less natural it is and the harder for your body to process all of it. If any of the first 5 or 6 ingredients have hyd as their prefix that means there is trans fat in it and that is something you want to try to avoid but you don't have to completely cut out. Taking in good things for your body from things you get at the store or a restaurant and helping your self avoid health risks and problems starts by reading labels and don't buy in to corporate blurbs just to get you to buy their product.

3g fat 18g carbs 1g protein

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 3

Additives and Enrichments Yellow dye number 2, sodium benzoate, red dye # 4, any of these sound familiar? These are some common things called additives that are found in a lot of common consumer food and beverage products in America. The First, Yellow Dye #2, dye’s are a very common additive to any product. It is just a shorter word companies use for food coloring, and its only reason for being in the product is just for color. Sodium Benzoate, sounds very scientific, it is but this is the common additive that goes into almost every American dark colored soda such as Coke, Pepsi, A&W, Dr. Pepper...etc. This is an additive solely for the purpose of preserving the bub-

bles or carbonation within the soda, for freshness. Additives in all products are used only for; adding taste, color, preserve, freshness, overall shelf life.

When an ingredient is enriched which is usually in ingredients like flour and bases of products. To Enrich as defined

by Webster’s dictionary is “to make finer in quality, as by supplying desirable elements or ingredients.” That is exactly what it does and it usually replaces certain things lost in the process of shaping and mixing ingredients, an example of this is when food companies use flour as the main ingredient in a product iron is usually lost in the process of making the flour based product.

So iron is re added to the flour during mixing. Additives and Enriching seem like good things and they are sometimes when there are very few of each and all are necessary to the product but the more there are the less natural the product. The Less Natural the Product is and is probably not your best choice t eat. All you need to do to see how natural a product is is when your at the store take 10 seconds to count the ingredients and additives, and it could really pay off in the long run.

Local Agency Contact

National Agency Contact

I Contacted Weight Watchers because they are a very popular and well known agency that deals with my topic of reading past the labels and really analyzing what you eat. I called their national hotline at 1-800-651-600 and they transferred

I contacted finally after many attempts to contact the FDA I finally did and they didn't give me enough information so I called one of

me to my local weight watchers in Kirkwood at 10326 Man-

their sub branches tht specifically related to my topic. I called the

chester Road and I talked to a women by the name of Sarah

CFSAN which stands for Center For Food Safety and Applied Nu-

and I asked about what exactly weight watchers does and she told me about their points system. Their system is actually

trition at 1-888-723-3366 and after being on hold for a while I fi-

very simple and can be tracked individually, foods that are

nally got to talk to a human being and I learned briefly about what

high in fiber and low in fat and calories are less points, mean-

they do. The CFFAN is a group of the FDA that specifically deals

ing you can eat more of them. Weight Watchers provides guidance, help , and group meetings that help people lose weight

with nutrition which is where their Food Pyramid originated from

without a strict, hardcore diet. This Agency directly relates to

and they also deal with the safety to your health of certain foods.

my topic because it guides people and shows them what to look

Most of the other information about them can e answered bby sim-

for on the labels of food they eat and can determine their “Point” amount for that meal.

ply navigating around on the foods section of the FDA website and if you had questions the CFSAN where the people to contact. The CFSAN is a government run organization that launched ad’s and PSA’s on food safety and nutrition and are a generall guidelines and aren't really specific and that’s where local agencies and nutritionists come in. The CFSAn is about as good as you can get for a national source that directly relates to my topic as they did.

bibliography 1. CDC, . "U.S. Obesity Trends." USA Gov. 11.20.09. CDC, Web. 23 Nov 2009. <ht tp://www.cdc.gov/obesi ty/data /trends.html>.

Community , . "Oreo Doub le Stuf fed." T he Da il y Pla te.com . 2009. Daily P late, W eb. 23 No v 2009.

2. <http:/ /www.theda i ly plat e.com /nutri tion -cal ori es/food /gener ic /oreo -doub le-stu ff>.

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Foods , Kraft. "MAC ARONI AND C HEESE - EASY MAC MAC ARONI & C HEESE DINNER - ORIGINAL MIC ROWAVABLE SNAC K P AC KETS 6 C T." Kr aftFoods .c om . 2009. Kraft Foods , W eb. 23 No v 2009. <http:/ /www.k raftfo ods .c om/k f /P roduc ts /P roduc tInfoDis pl ay .as px?Sit eId=1& P roduc t=21000671 48>.

Wis e, Si x. " Al l the Hea lth Ris k s of P roc es s ed Foods -- In Jus t a F ew Qu ic k Bit es ." Si xWis e.com . 1 0.19.2005. Six WIs e, W eb.

23 Nov 2009. < http:/ /www.s ixw i s e.c om/news l etters /05 /10/19/a l l -th e-he alth -r is k s -of-proc es s ed - foods -- -- in-jus t -a- fewquic k -c onven ien t -b ites .htm >.

Video 1. "Ask UNMC - What should y ou l ook for on a nutr iti on labe l?. " Yo utube . Web. 23 Nov 2009. <http:/ /www.y outube.com /watc h?v=nFdGZ 1zLbw0>.

Interview 1. Sarah, . We igh t Wa tchers , 11.24.09. Personal In ter view by Maso n Medart. 11.20.09.

Online Document 1. FDA, . "Claims That Can Be Made for Conventional Foods and Dietary Supplements." FDA.gov. 5.14.09. FDA, Web. 23 Nov 2009. <http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/LabelC laims /ucm111447.htm >.