Food Label Fake-outs

SoupNazi

4 Outrageous Food Label Fake-Outs
Posted Tue, Mar 11, 2008, 6:19 pm PDT

When you pick up a tempting food, scan the nutrition label, and think, "Wow, cool" -- because it's surprisingly lite or low-cal or free of trans fat -- you expect those claims to be bona fide, right? Hah. Food packagers can be sneaky. Watch out for these 4 typical traps.

When it comes to comfort food, has it got to be Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese? Look twice. Like many boxed food mixes, the confusing label lists two sets of nutrition stats -- and the first one is for the dry mix only. Unless you plan on eating your mac-cheese mix straight from the box, the prepared version (made with margarine and 2% milk) adds an extra 15 grams fat and 150 calories per serving to the figures on the label.

Just downed a tall (23.5-ounce) can of AriZona Mucho Mango juice blend? Brace yourself. The sugar hit is 75 grams, not 25, as a glance at the label suggests. And the calorie hit is 360, not 120. That's ‘cause one serving is only 8 ounces -- you're supposed to save the remaining two-thirds of the can for two more drinks.

Snacking on one of those smallish 3-ounce bags of multigrain Sun Chips? Smart, but note the itty-bitty serving size -- only 1/3 of that bag! Scarf down more and you might as well be enjoying Oreos.

Sometimes you really need a cookie, right? Happily, the nutrition label on your fave brand says 0 grams of both, fat and trans fat. That's good enough that you can deal with the sugar guilt tomorrow, right? Sorry, but 0 doesn't mean zero. It means less than 0.5 gram per serving. Sure, that's not much -- unless a serving is, say, two Snackwells Chocolate Mint cookies and by midnight you've finished the whole box. (Who, you?)
Shady labels like these give a whole new meaning to buyer's remorse. And wising up to nutrition tricks won't just keep you trim. Avoiding foods that list saturated and trans fats, simple sugars, or processed grains among their first five ingredients can make your RealAge 3.6 years younger. Sweet.

from Yahoo Foods

SoupNazi

4 Outrageous Food Label Fake-Outs
Posted Tue, Mar 11, 2008, 6:19 pm PDT

When you pick up a tempting food, scan the nutrition label, and think, "Wow, cool" -- because it's surprisingly lite or low-cal or free of trans fat -- you expect those claims to be bona fide, right? Hah. Food packagers can be sneaky. Watch out for these 4 typical traps.

When it comes to comfort food, has it got to be Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese? Look twice. Like many boxed food mixes, the confusing label lists two sets of nutrition stats -- and the first one is for the dry mix only. Unless you plan on eating your mac-cheese mix straight from the box, the prepared version (made with margarine and 2% milk) adds an extra 15 grams fat and 150 calories per serving to the figures on the label.

Just downed a tall (23.5-ounce) can of AriZona Mucho Mango juice blend? Brace yourself. The sugar hit is 75 grams, not 25, as a glance at the label suggests. And the calorie hit is 360, not 120. That's ‘cause one serving is only 8 ounces -- you're supposed to save the remaining two-thirds of the can for two more drinks.

Snacking on one of those smallish 3-ounce bags of multigrain Sun Chips? Smart, but note the itty-bitty serving size -- only 1/3 of that bag! Scarf down more and you might as well be enjoying Oreos.

Sometimes you really need a cookie, right? Happily, the nutrition label on your fave brand says 0 grams of both, fat and trans fat. That's good enough that you can deal with the sugar guilt tomorrow, right? Sorry, but 0 doesn't mean zero. It means less than 0.5 gram per serving. Sure, that's not much -- unless a serving is, say, two Snackwells Chocolate Mint cookies and by midnight you've finished the whole box. (Who, you?)
Shady labels like these give a whole new meaning to buyer's remorse. And wising up to nutrition tricks won't just keep you trim. Avoiding foods that list saturated and trans fats, simple sugars, or processed grains among their first five ingredients can make your RealAge 3.6 years younger. Sweet.

from Yahoo Foods

rheston

Have you ever looked at a bag of unpopped pop corn? There's one value if you eat it before it's cooked and another for when it's cooked and the latter is much less than the former. The moral of that story is don't eat pop corn before it's timed!:laugh:

SoupNazi

Have you ever looked at a bag of unpopped pop corn? There's one value if you eat it before it's cooked and another for when it's cooked and the latter is much less than the former. The moral of that story is don't eat pop corn before it's timed!:laugh:

How gross..and yet, crunchy. How can the value of popcorn change after it is cooked? I don't get it.

Cassia

Have you ever looked at a bag of unpopped pop corn? There's one value if you eat it before it's cooked and another for when it's cooked and the latter is much less than the former. The moral of that story is don't eat pop corn before it's timed!:laugh:

How gross..and yet, crunchy. How can the value of popcorn change after it is cooked? I don't get it.

Maybe they assume that some of the calories will stick to the bag or something like that....
Just an uneducated guess

walnut

Have you ever looked at a bag of unpopped pop corn? There's one value if you eat it before it's cooked and another for when it's cooked and the latter is much less than the former. The moral of that story is don't eat pop corn before it's timed!:laugh:

How gross..and yet, crunchy. How can the value of popcorn change after it is cooked? I don't get it.

Maybe they assume that some of the calories will stick to the bag or something like that....
Just an uneducated guess

cooked or uncooked, it has the same mass. Once it's cooked, there is much more volume, so when they say you're eating a cup of popped corn (maybe 1/4 of the bag), it will be lower calories than if you were, for some reason, :huh: eating a cup of unpopped kernels (probably more than there are in the bag).

ligytha

Have you ever looked at a bag of unpopped pop corn? There's one value if you eat it before it's cooked and another for when it's cooked and the latter is much less than the former. The moral of that story is don't eat pop corn before it's timed!:laugh:

How gross..and yet, crunchy. How can the value of popcorn change after it is cooked? I don't get it.

Maybe they assume that some of the calories will stick to the bag or something like that....
Just an uneducated guess

cooked or uncooked, it has the same mass. Once it's cooked, there is much more volume, so when they say you're eating a cup of popped corn (maybe 1/4 of the bag), it will be lower calories than if you were, for some reason, :huh: eating a cup of unpopped kernels (probably more than there are in the bag).

Also, just a guess, the oil in the bag won't be in the pre-cooked kernels, but the popped ones will retain oil. Yet another reason to air-pop your popcorn!

peej76

I've noticed this lately too!So my grocery shopping takes twice as long now because i'm reading practically the whole back of the package!