Thought for the Day: To successfully travel the path from here to there, you must start with being fully here.
The more you give your attention and energy to making the most of where you are, the more quickly you’ll move along that path. — Jesse
I have to admit these marketing companies have done their homework in finding out how to work around the system. Ever wonder how non-stick cooking sprays can be labeled as “fat free” when they contain nothing but oil? Two words: serving size. According to the labeling laws, a food can be labeled as fat free if the serving size has less than .5 grams of fat. That’s while the serving size of those cooking sprays is often a ridiculous one-third of a second spray, which is almost impossible to do. Pretty sleazy, eh?
Here’s another one: volume. Again according to the labeling laws, fat content can be listed as a percentage of overall volume (Alesi, 51-52). Poultry and beef are notorious for being sprayed down with water to increase their overall volume. As you know, water has no calories so if you up the serving volume with a no-calorie additive like water you can decrease the fat volume to the point that it looks good on the label. The same thing is done with some “fat free” milk, which often contains plenty of fat, just not per serving.
And while we’re on the fat-free wagon, just because a label says it’s fat free doesn’t mean it’s good for you! Sometimes the fat is simply replaced with massive quantities of sugar.
Just pick up a bag of fat-free cookies and read the ingredients. How far do you think you can take your physique with this type of food?
The list doesn’t end there. Carbs are also mislabeled. You’ve probably read numerous times that protein bars commonly advertised as “low carb” often contain glycerin, an alcohol sugar. Again the labeling laws protect the producer and not the consumer in that alcohol sugar content doesn’t have to be added to carbohydrate totals (ConsumerLab, 2). While alcohol sugars and “regular” carbs aren’t exactly the same thing, your body may not be able to tell the difference.
While we’re on the subject of alcohol sugar, next time you read the label on a bottle of beer, maybe you can tell me how they can list 110 calories per serving with a content of less than one gram of protein (four calories), less than one gram of fat (nine calories) and less than one gram of carbs (four calories). I’ll give you a hint: alcohol sugar. If you’re on a low carb “keto” diet and think you can have a couple of beers and still stay in ketosis, think again. You’ve been duped, brother.
Also watch those serving sizes. A food may look healthy until you realize it contains twenty servings per package (and you could eat the whole package in one sitting with ease).
Other key words to avoid are “processed” and “cured.” It’s perfectly acceptable for a food manufacturer to base their label claims on a food analysis conducted before it’s processed or cured. Heat can alter fats and protein for the worse, seldom for the better.
The real key to food selection is to keep it simple and first look at the ingredients before looking at the nutritional information. Ingredients are listed in order of total volume from the greatest to the least. If the first ingredient is lard, hydrogenated oils, sugar, or a word you can’t pronounce, it’s a good clue that this food isn’t supportive of your long term goals.
Health claims on food packages can be confusing, and it’s sometimes hard to reconcile the information of the front of the package with what’s on the nutrition facts panel on the back of the package.
Have you ever gotten confused by the information on the food labels on the food you buy to eat? Especially when you are trying to cut calories, fat, and carbohydrates.
Do you read the labels on the food you buy? If you don’t, it is time to educate yourself and start reading the labels of foods you buy for yourself and your family. What are those food labels really saying? A food label is like a recipe – It tells you what’s in the food you eat. Don’t you want to know what you’re putting into your body? In order to plan a healthy diet, you must know how to read a food label.
Time to pause, If you stand tall and look westward, you can see the ocean in its vastness. Let’s spread our wings, soar above the rugged, frothy coastline and watch the sun balance on the flaming horizon… tranquillizing after a long day shuffling iron and shifting steel.
Till next week, my friends, when the skies are clear and the horizons are where they always are — before us and in the near distance. I’m fine.
Don’t taxi when you can fly… and when you can fly, fly high.
God be with you… Jesse L.S.C.T.
