Food Labeling Sales Pitch or Scam??

Let’s face it the food producers are in it for one reason and one reason only, to take your money. They want to supply you with the cheapest, crappiest product they can for the most money they can charge for it. They are definitely not looking to give you stuff for free. They want to make a healthy billion or two profit by the end of the year.  So the companies happy, shareholders and happy, and we a left eating paying through the nose for shit food products just so the fat cats can buy another yacht.

Now, gone are the days of the quaint traditional markets, although there are still some farmers markets; where traders would entice us to buy their products.  We could also see what we were buying, be told where it had come from and also told that old Mrs. McDonald had cooked it (other cooks are available).  Most of us now shop in these faceless hypermarkets that are now bigger than a small town. The only ‘traders’ now are those that sit behind a check out at the front of an endless queue taking our money and asking if we want cash back?? Yes, if I hadn’t just spent it all!!!  In fact, it’s getting so bad that we can actually scan our own food and not see anyone. So effectively it’s the food label that’s selling the product.

The label is the greatest marketing tool

So now the label is the greatest marketing tool there is.  The label is the ‘voice’ now between the shelf and the consumer.  So just like the when the trader with the fog horn voice got the most attention, now it’s the most enticing label that gets the attention.

So companies try and dupe us into buying products by using a range of key words and ideas and phrases to sell us the health benefits of their products.

“Free-Range,” “Real Fruit,” “All Natural,” “Fat free,” — buzz words like these are all over our food products these days; with the sole purpose to make you buy it and feel good about it. Yay, I’m super healthy, look at my basket full of goodness.

It can be confusing enough to know whether these words actually mean anything: whether a product labeled “all natural” is better than a product without that label, and how to make sure you’re not being misled by healthy-sounding product labels (when the product is actually not healthy at all).

Often food manufacturers will bandy around these buzzwords on their labels as a way of cheating you, by making not-so-healthy food items seem good for you and homemade, just like your granny made.

 Here is Nerd Style Wellness’ guide to navigating food labels: 

Marketing Labels to Watch Out For and what they mean.

1) “All Natural” or “100% Natural”

The term “natural” has no regulatory definition – no standards exist for this label which means it can be used on virtually any type of product and is pretty much meaningless. And unfortunately it’s often perceived by us as consumers as equivalent to organic or healthy, which it isn’t.

Despite the comforting implications of the word natural, it actually tells us very little about how a food was produced. While saying “natural shredded coconut” makes it sound like that coconut fell off the tree, shredded itself, and blew on a tropical breeze to the shelf where you found it, the most you can expect natural to mean is that no artificial flavour or colouring was added to it.

However, “natural” foods are not necessarily sustainable, organic, humanely raised, or free of hormones and antibiotics or pesticides.

So what does it mean? A label that says “natural” or “100% natural” does NOT mean it’s healthy! It basically doesn’t mean anything, so feel free to ignore it as an indicator of a healthier food item.

2) 0g Trans Fat

We all know that trans fats are bad, yes.  So why is this label misleading? The problem with this label is that manufacturers only have to list trans fats if they are present in amounts greater than 0.5 grams per serving. So if a food product has trans fats in the amount of 0.4g per serving – guess what the manufacturer can claim “0g Trans Fats” on their packaging. Since the recommended limit for trans fat consumption to less than 2g per day, those hidden half gram servings of trans fats can really add up!

So what does it mean? Don’t trust the “0g Trans Fats” label on the front of the package. Instead, look at the ingredients list for partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, hydrogenated vegetable oils, or shortening. Steer clear!!

3) Health promoting claims: “Made with Real Fruit,” “Immune Support,” “Heart Healthy,” etc.

Once again, this just another freaking ploy to get us to buy a product! This is a label that is virtually meaningless. There are absolutely no standards to claim “immune support” or “heart healthy” or “real” on the label. Often products that claim “made with real fruit” are actually made with the world’s smallest amount of fruit puree and a ton of sugar or artificial colouring. How often do we think of it as 1 of our five-a-day!  Similarly, “heart healthy” is a way to get around some of the standards for labeling — it is just a marketing tactic.

So what does it mean? These labels don’t mean anything, and are often a clue that the product actually isn’t healthy because it’s trying so hard to claim that it is.  There is also no guarantee which fruit is in the food. It doesn’t always match the image.

4) Fat Free

This is a notoriously misleading label. When the dangers of saturated and trans fat became clear, the market was flooded with products that touted their fat-free status.  Often, the food manufacturers will replace the fat in a particular food item with a whole lot of sugar and artificial ingredients.  Because when you take out the fat, you take out the flavour. So in order to make it taste edible, manufacturers replace it with something else, more often than not, sugars and artificial flavours.

So what does that mean? Fat free isn’t always healthier. It will be fat free. But packaged products that say “fat free” probably have a lot of added sugar and other ingredients to compensate. Check out the ingredients label to make sure that the fat isn’t being replaced with less healthy ingredients!

5) Organic

While organic was once a bit like the term all natural—open to interpretation—that’s no longer true. If a product’s label that says organic, 95% or more of the ingredients must have been grown or processed without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides (among other standards).  A label that says made with organic ingredients must have a minimum of 70% all ingredients that meet the standard.

Keep in mind that organic is not synonymous with healthy. In fact, it may be anything but. Organic food can still be packed in fat, calories, and sugar.

Products with 70 to 95 percent organic ingredients can still advertise “organic” ingredients on the front of the package, and products with less than 70 percent organic ingredients can identify them on the side panel. Organic foods prohibit the use of hydrogenation and trans fats as well.

So what does that mean? So although organic food can be better for you, you need to be aware of where it came from and what is in it.

6) Pasture-Raised, Grass-Fed, Free-Range, Cage-Free

“Pasture-raised” indicates that the animal was raised on a pasture and that it ate grasses and food found in a pasture, rather than being fattened on grain in a feedlot or barn. Pasturing livestock and poultry is a traditional farming technique that allows animals to be raised in a humane manner. This term is very similar to “grass-fed,” though the term “pasture-raised” indicates more clearly that the animal was raised outdoors on pasture.

“Free-Range” is only defined for egg and poultry production. It can be used as long as the producers allow the poultry access to the outdoors. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the products are antibiotic-free, cruelty-free, or that the animals spent most of their time outdoors.

“Cage Free” means that the birds are raised without cages. What this doesn’t explain is whether the birds were raised outdoors on pasture, if they had access to outside, or if they were raised indoors in overcrowded conditions.

So what does that mean? If you are looking to buy eggs, poultry or meat that was raised outdoors, look for a label that says “Pastured” or “Pasture-raised.

And that is it! I hope that is helpful for you in navigating some of those food labels and products out there. Don’t be taken in by some of the wording on the labels, remember manufacturers are trying to make money and they get it from us.

 If there are other labels you have questions about that I haven’t listed here, definitely reach out in the comments of this post and I will get back to you!