Food Label Lies - you won't FREAKING Believe this!

cutmd
cutmd Posts: 1,168 Member
edited September 25 in Food and Nutrition
Have you been wondering why your dutiful calorie counting hasn't resulted in the amount of weight loss you expected? The calories in your foods might be just plain WRONG.

For about a year now I have been using Galeo's salad dressing. It's delicious and supposedly 14 calories per tablespoon. It has been featured on biggest loser for the longest time, and I've mentioned it many times on this website. Well, today I go to whole foods for more and they tell me they pulled it from the shelves because they got caught LYING about their nutritional info. They have 4X the calories and 6X the fat amounts claimed:

http://www.usgovernment-news.com/?prID=58299. Considering I've had a salad about 5X a week with it, it's added up for me!!! :angry:

Here is a general article about false food labels: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=118235

It turns out the government allows for 20% error on food labels (I bet the majority err towards the higher side) - sadly I am working with a 20% deficit as I try to lose these last few pounds, so that's significant!

Stick with whole unpackaged foods as much as you can people - just like diet pill manufacturers and exercise machine makers, food companies make money off of us dieters and will do or say anything to get more. :mad:
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Replies

  • doll2002
    doll2002 Posts: 427
    WOW!! Thanks for sharing that.
  • ObviousIndigo
    ObviousIndigo Posts: 382 Member
    Good reason to stick to whole foods! Wow! how upsetting!!!
  • SunLove8
    SunLove8 Posts: 693 Member
    It really makes me angry when company's feel the need to lie. It's sickening and they shouldn't be able to sell food products after being caught lieing. It's people's lives that they are playing with and it's sad. I agree about staying away from pre packaged foods as much as possiable. Thanks for sharing!
  • brancakes
    brancakes Posts: 263 Member
    Oprah did a segment on this once! it was crazy 20% is way too much!
  • RMinVA
    RMinVA Posts: 1,085 Member
    I have known that for sometime now.

    Here is another eye opener for you.about why you should use a scale when measuring calorie dense foods.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
  • JMM_623_
    JMM_623_ Posts: 68 Member
    bump
  • jenn_18
    jenn_18 Posts: 32
    def a reason to stick to whole foods! wow!
  • DeDrACaRrOlL
    DeDrACaRrOlL Posts: 1
    thanks nice to know about it i have been eating it t oo
  • Painten
    Painten Posts: 499 Member
    I used to work for a food manufacturer. We had more than one product that the label didn't match the nutritional info. The products did originally but with recipie changes the labels just didn't change to match. Pretty much every change was due to cost cutting and ingredients being replaced by cheaper ingredients.
  • pilotgirl2007
    pilotgirl2007 Posts: 368 Member
    Maybe instead of cracking down on McDonalds and their advertising etc our government should focus on making sure we are getting the correct information on our food labels.
  • staciekins
    staciekins Posts: 453 Member
    Oh wow! They shouldn't be able to lie 20%. I can understand 5% as sometimes things accidentally get messed up during production and can fluctuate slightly. But 20%!!!!!! Outrageous!!!
  • therobinator
    therobinator Posts: 832 Member
    Don't have time right now, but I will have to read these links later. Ugh. :(
  • emilysebastian
    emilysebastian Posts: 245 Member
    BUMP, and thanks for sharing--WTF?!?!
  • GettingThisDone100
    GettingThisDone100 Posts: 27 Member
    Wow (really just commenting so I can find this later)
  • EbonyGemstoneHealth
    EbonyGemstoneHealth Posts: 249 Member
    Yeah this is why I don't give in much to all these weight watchers meals/desserts everything and stuff,they are not worth the hassle,and because of these lies,grr.
    Wholefoods all the way! :D
  • cathcakey
    cathcakey Posts: 288 Member
    It's ridiculous they can get away with that!!
  • freerange
    freerange Posts: 1,722 Member
    If I remember right, my local news channel did a piece like this once, about fast food restaurants. The law says they can’t be UNDER the amount of calories they post, but there is nothing stopping them from being over the amount of calories posted on their nutritional information about each item.

    So if Burger King post that a whopper w/cheese has 1000 calories, it must have at least 1000 calories, but it can have twice that without breaking the advertising laws.
  • Sasha_Bear
    Sasha_Bear Posts: 625 Member
    Oh no say it ain't so! That really shouldn't be allowed!:mad:
  • Kirstie_C26
    Kirstie_C26 Posts: 490 Member
    bump
  • megteg
    megteg Posts: 97 Member
    Kudos to Whole Foods! I think I'll keep shopping there when I can...

    My favorite is when they sneak in extra "servings" in nutrition labels. My fiance was about to get a muffin for me that was ~200 calories, until he realized that the nutrition facts said in tiny print there was supposedly FOUR SERVINGS.
  • Black_Swan
    Black_Swan Posts: 770 Member
    Thats just horrible!
  • karenjoy
    karenjoy Posts: 1,840 Member
    Independent nutritionist Dr Geoffrey Livesey, who formerly worked for the Medical Research Council, is among a growing band of scientists calling for a new system.


    'We need to take into account all the considerable knowledge we have learnt since 1889 and start applying it,' said Dr Livesey.


    'An error in accuracy of 25 per cent is simply not good enough. And with some prepared meals containing a number of foods, the level of inaccuracy can be as much as 50 per cent. 'The consumer is being cheated by not getting the right information. 'People on strict calorie controlled diets cannot rely on food packaging when trying to lose or gain weight.'


    The existing method of calculation was created 120 years ago based on tables put together by American agricultural chemist Wilbur Olin Atwater. Using a device called a bomb calorimeter, Atwater burned food samples and measured the amount of energy released from the heat this produced.

    He then estimated the amount of this energy the body used up, by calculating the energy of undigested food in faeces and other waste products.Atwater concluded that every gram of carbohydrates produced four calories, every gram of fat, nine calories and every gram of protein, four calories.
    Ever since these figures have been taken as gospel.


    However new research by Dr Livesey, and others, has shown that the amount we digest certain food varies.
    Therefore the calorie content of food should be re-calculated according to its Net Metablisable Energy - the figure showing the amount of calories food leaves for your body to use after the calories used in digesting it have been subtract.
    His findings were reviewed by the World Health Organisation in 2007, which concluded his research was sound.
    Despite this, government body, the Food Standards Agency, has rejected calls to adopt the system.
    Dr Livesey said the discrepancies also call into doubt the ability of the food regulators to punish manufactures who publish in accurate calorie information.
    'Manufacturers are punished by regulators if they publish inaccurate calorie information.
    'There is a degree of injustice here. Should manufacturers be punished if the system is itself just as inaccurate?'

    A spokesperson for the FSA said that Mr Livesey's research was of 'legitimate scientific interest' but would not have sufficient impact on overall diets to warrant changing calorie counts on packaging.
  • pretentiouskate
    pretentiouskate Posts: 186
    Kudos to Whole Foods! I think I'll keep shopping there when I can...

    My favorite is when they sneak in extra "servings" in nutrition labels. My fiance was about to get a muffin for me that was ~200 calories, until he realized that the nutrition facts said in tiny print there was supposedly FOUR SERVINGS.

    I honestly think that when people talk about eating whole foods, they aren't talking about the grocery chain - they're talking about unprocessed foods in their natural form. So an orange, vs. a can of oranges, or making your own chicken and rice vs. buying a prepackaged meal of chicken and rice.
  • cutmd
    cutmd Posts: 1,168 Member
    Kudos to Whole Foods! I think I'll keep shopping there when I can...

    My favorite is when they sneak in extra "servings" in nutrition labels. My fiance was about to get a muffin for me that was ~200 calories, until he realized that the nutrition facts said in tiny print there was supposedly FOUR SERVINGS.

    I honestly think that when people talk about eating whole foods, they aren't talking about the grocery chain - they're talking about unprocessed foods in their natural form. So an orange, vs. a can of oranges, or making your own chicken and rice vs. buying a prepackaged meal of chicken and rice.

    In this case, both deserve credit. Whole Foods the grocery store is strict about accurate food labeling since many of their customers have food intolerances (like me) or health concerns. Whole foods the concept of unpackaged food, ie oranges, is what we should focus on eating. I, of course, prefer to buy my whole foods from Whole Foods. But that is the subject of a different thread :happy:

    By the way, I calculated that galeo's owes me about 6lbs of weight loss :grumble:

    And if this is what's happening with packaged food, just imagine in a restaurant where they are cooking things fresh. An extra pat of butter or fattier cut of meat and you're eating way more than you think :frown:
  • RMinVA
    RMinVA Posts: 1,085 Member
    If I remember right, my local news channel did a piece like this once, about fast food restaurants. The law says they can’t be UNDER the amount of calories they post, but there is nothing stopping them from being over the amount of calories posted on their nutritional information about each item.

    So if Burger King post that a whopper w/cheese has 1000 calories, it must have at least 1000 calories, but it can have twice that without breaking the advertising laws.

    Additionally, there is absolutely NO regulation and studies have shown that restaurant meals are often 30% OVER.
  • amysj303
    amysj303 Posts: 5,086 Member
    but whole foods are going to vary too, right? I don't weigh the apples I eat but they vary a lot in size but I enter them as generic apple for 100 cals and that could be very different. presumably other fruits might vary in their sweetness and calorie content, even if the weight was the same.
    This is not to justify what Galeo salad dressing did, I just realize that not every food, packaged or whole, is going to be consistent.
  • pretentiouskate
    pretentiouskate Posts: 186
    but whole foods are going to vary too, right? I don't weigh the apples I eat but they vary a lot in size but I enter them as generic apple for 100 cals and that could be very different. presumably other fruits might vary in their sweetness and calorie content, even if the weight was the same.
    This is not to justify what Galeo salad dressing did, I just realize that not every food, packaged or whole, is going to be consistent.

    This is true, but you can find consistent info on what an apple is per ounce - and weighing that apple, and finding what it is per ounce, would get you an accurate measure of calories in it.
  • therobinator
    therobinator Posts: 832 Member
    I have known that for sometime now.

    Here is another eye opener for you.about why you should use a scale when measuring calorie dense foods.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

    Interesting, and definitely worth checking your scoops on a scale.
  • therobinator
    therobinator Posts: 832 Member
    I have known that for sometime now.

    Here is another eye opener for you.about why you should use a scale when measuring calorie dense foods.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

    But on the other hand (I'm playing devil's advocate here):

    Human beings have gotten along for millions of years without measuring everything exactly and concurrently without being overweight....because our bodies tell us what we need, on what days we need more food, on what days we need less food (to balance out the days we had too much), etc. So, while yes, this video certainly proves a point, unless a person is absolutely consistently measuring wrong (and never just doing what feels right for a particular day/meal - i.e. naturally balancing the diet), the video won't necessarily hold true.

    Just saying. Not trying to debate. Peace. :)
  • Grokette
    Grokette Posts: 3,330 Member
    Maybe instead of cracking down on McDonalds and their advertising etc our government should focus on making sure we are getting the correct information on our food labels.


    The government is not going to change anything. There are too many lobbyists for the Food Growing and Manufacturing that things are going to get way worse before they ever begin to get better.

    I am trying to break into Politics in regards to changing food Policy..................I just don't know where to get started.
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