How US labeling is decieving
Options
Replies
-
paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I don't think they do... the food company puts the serving on their product, the FDA just reviews it if there's a complaint and decides whether the serving size could be considered "reasonable" but it doesn't say what reasonable would be.0 -
sollyn23l2 wrote: »paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I don't think they do... the food company puts the serving on their product, the FDA just reviews it if there's a complaint and decides whether the serving size could be considered "reasonable" but it doesn't say what reasonable would be.
FDA does specify serving sizes in spite of what social media makes people think. All foods in the US are covered by 21CFR101.12 https://accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=101.12 which specifies a reference amount for different categories of food. These regulations have been in place since NLEA came into being in 1994 (?). Some of these serving sizes were revised in 2016 when the label format was changed. (some up , some down).
1 -
paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
From memory - since I haven't eaten a Poptart in decades - I believe there was a time when what people are saying was true, that one packet, 2 Poptarts, was 2 servings. Perhaps they've been shamed into change, but my better guess would be that a 2016 US labeling rule change maybe had something to do with it. Brace yourself for the bureaucratese:Over the last 20 years, evidence has accumulated demonstrating that container and unit sizes can influence the amount of food consumed. For containers and units of certain sizes, consumers are likely to eat the entire container or unit in one sitting. For other container and unit sizes, consumers may consume the container or unit in one sitting or may consume the container or unit over multiple sittings or share the container or unit contents with other consumers. To address containers that may be consumed in a single-eating occasion, we are requiring that all containers, including containers of products with “large” RACCs (i.e., products with RACCs of at least 100 grams (g) or 100 milliliters (mL)), containing less than 200 percent of the RACC be labeled as a single-serving container.
Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/05/27/2016-11865/food-labeling-serving-sizes-of-foods-that-can-reasonably-be-consumed-at-one-eating-occasion
RACC = reference amounts customarily consumed. I'll leave it to readers more pedantic than I to look into how RACCs are defined and regulated.
Yeah, I know, for many readers here 2016 was prehistoric. But for lots of us, it wasn't that long ago . . . almost yesterday.0 -
paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
From memory - since I haven't eaten a Poptart in decades - I believe there was a time when what people are saying was true, that one packet, 2 Poptarts, was 2 servings. Perhaps they've been shamed into change, but my better guess would be that a 2016 US labeling rule change maybe had something to do with it. Brace yourself for the bureaucratese:Over the last 20 years, evidence has accumulated demonstrating that container and unit sizes can influence the amount of food consumed. For containers and units of certain sizes, consumers are likely to eat the entire container or unit in one sitting. For other container and unit sizes, consumers may consume the container or unit in one sitting or may consume the container or unit over multiple sittings or share the container or unit contents with other consumers. To address containers that may be consumed in a single-eating occasion, we are requiring that all containers, including containers of products with “large” RACCs (i.e., products with RACCs of at least 100 grams (g) or 100 milliliters (mL)), containing less than 200 percent of the RACC be labeled as a single-serving container.
Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/05/27/2016-11865/food-labeling-serving-sizes-of-foods-that-can-reasonably-be-consumed-at-one-eating-occasion
RACC = reference amounts customarily consumed. I'll leave it to readers more pedantic than I to look into how RACCs are defined and regulated.
Yeah, I know, for many readers here 2016 was prehistoric. But for lots of us, it wasn't that long ago . . . almost yesterday.
It may have changed with the update in 2016 - I have no idea. I just know what the 2016 version said the serving size is 2 pastries and that was 7 years ago. It just means that people haven't really bothered to read the label since they eat them all the time and figure they are the same as they always were. Sounds like this will live on like lots of other things that have changed (trans fat in margarine is my favorite myth).1 -
Reference amounts CUSTOMARILY consumed...that just screams danger to me. Most people who get a soda at a restaurant or burger joint consider it a single-meal drink, not something to be divided across multiple meals. By definition then, the sodas served today are CUSTOMARILY consumed in one sitting, therefore meet the criterion for RACC. This despite the fact a small soda served at many burger joints today is bigger than a large soda served fifty years ago.
Allowing the consumer to decide what qualifies as a suitable standard, in an era of ever-climbing obesity rates, just seems to me a recipe to encourage even more consumption by the masses, which could raise even higher what is considered CUSTOMARILY consumed numbers, and the cycle repeats endlessly.
To be fair, I did not read through the entire article to see if this has already been accounted for or not.0 -
Reference amounts CUSTOMARILY consumed...that just screams danger to me. Most people who get a soda at a restaurant or burger joint consider it a single-meal drink, not something to be divided across multiple meals. By definition then, the sodas served today are CUSTOMARILY consumed in one sitting, therefore meet the criterion for RACC. This despite the fact a small soda served at many burger joints today is bigger than a large soda served fifty years ago.
Allowing the consumer to decide what qualifies as a suitable standard, in an era of ever-climbing obesity rates, just seems to me a recipe to encourage even more consumption by the masses, which could raise even higher what is considered CUSTOMARILY consumed numbers, and the cycle repeats endlessly.
To be fair, I did not read through the entire article to see if this has already been accounted for or not.
At least the RACC is a starting point and gives some standardization. For many people (my husband is 1), NEVER look at a nutrition label so it could say anything and it doesn't matter.
1 -
My wife's the same, which is another reason I do all the grocery shopping (in addition to me being the cook for the family).1
-
paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I have a box of Poptarts in my pantry (don't judge - it's hurricane season!
) and it lists "one pastry"/52 grams as the serving size. 2 -
It used to be 1. Kellogg's changed their labels.
https://kelloggs.com/en_US/articles/nutrition/understanding-new-nutrition-label.html
But, yeah, I used to live off top ramen (the brick kind) and, even tho this was in the days of me not calorie counting, I used to eat two bricks each time. That's not even 2 servings. It's 4!0 -
paints5555 wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I don't think they do... the food company puts the serving on their product, the FDA just reviews it if there's a complaint and decides whether the serving size could be considered "reasonable" but it doesn't say what reasonable would be.
FDA does specify serving sizes in spite of what social media makes people think. All foods in the US are covered by 21CFR101.12 https://accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=101.12 which specifies a reference amount for different categories of food. These regulations have been in place since NLEA came into being in 1994 (?). Some of these serving sizes were revised in 2016 when the label format was changed. (some up , some down).
Good. They must have made some changes recently. I'm glad.0 -
Mouse_Potato wrote: »paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I have a box of Poptarts in my pantry (don't judge - it's hurricane season! ) and it lists "one pastry"/52 grams as the serving size.
Pop tarts as emergency rations. 😱
Don’t judge me either, but I have some boxes of 20 year old pop tarts in the garage because I collected memorabilia from a certain movie and pop tarts did a promo. I’m halfway tempted to open them and see if they’re still fresh. 😂😂😂
We won’t even talk about the Canadian candy bars and the Spanish malt balls (which were btw, an extra fun promotion). The British HP beans, though, the can exploded after about ten years. 🤦🏻♀️ so I saved the empty cans.2 -
I think you missed the part where we were discussing how some serving sizes are laughable. Pop Tarts come 2 in a package. It's unlikely that many just eat 1 Pop Tart and rewrap the other for later. So just being a devil's advocate here, why doesn't Kellogg's put "1 package 400 calories". Wouldn't that help to solve any issue with having to only eat one then wrap the other? They don't because they know everyone will likely eat 2. And they don't really want to freak out their buyers too much. People read labels quickly if that and most of time they just look for how many calories per serving, not always what a serving consists of.paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
1 -
Yes, they come 2 to a sleeve and the serving size for poptarts has been 2 pastries for 7 years (since 2016). And understand that the required labeling is for the entire box - it is what you see when you buy it. So a "package" would not be useful unless you were going to eat the entire box as a serving. Since the shelf-life of poptarts is probably only a year or 2, anything showing less than 2 pastries is pretty old. The FDA serving size before that was 1 pastry (since 1995 or so). Before that, nutrition labeling was voluntary and manufacturers could use whatever serving size they wanted to. And unfortunately, it's that time before 1995 that people seem to think still exists- that manufacturers can use whatever serving size they want to make their product look better. It's been almost 30 years since that was true.
I think you missed the part where we were discussing how some serving sizes are laughable. Pop Tarts come 2 in a package. It's unlikely that many just eat 1 Pop Tart and rewrap the other for later. So just being a devil's advocate here, why doesn't Kellogg's put "1 package 400 calories". Wouldn't that help to solve any issue with having to only eat one then wrap the other? They don't because they know everyone will likely eat 2. And they don't really want to freak out their buyers too much. People read labels quickly if that and most of time they just look for how many calories per serving, not always what a serving consists of.paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Even if you think the serving sizes are laughable, the information is there on the label. If you really care about what you are eating, you will read the label. And if you don't (my husband), all this discussion has no relevance since you won't read it ever.
1 -
I'm sorry did you bother to read the whole thread or just about Pop Tarts?paints5555 wrote: »
Yes, they come 2 to a sleeve and the serving size for poptarts has been 2 pastries for 7 years (since 2016). And understand that the required labeling is for the entire box - it is what you see when you buy it. So a "package" would not be useful unless you were going to eat the entire box as a serving. Since the shelf-life of poptarts is probably only a year or 2, anything showing less than 2 pastries is pretty old. The FDA serving size before that was 1 pastry (since 1995 or so). Before that, nutrition labeling was voluntary and manufacturers could use whatever serving size they wanted to. And unfortunately, it's that time before 1995 that people seem to think still exists- that manufacturers can use whatever serving size they want to make their product look better. It's been almost 30 years since that was true.
I think you missed the part where we were discussing how some serving sizes are laughable. Pop Tarts come 2 in a package. It's unlikely that many just eat 1 Pop Tart and rewrap the other for later. So just being a devil's advocate here, why doesn't Kellogg's put "1 package 400 calories". Wouldn't that help to solve any issue with having to only eat one then wrap the other? They don't because they know everyone will likely eat 2. And they don't really want to freak out their buyers too much. People read labels quickly if that and most of time they just look for how many calories per serving, not always what a serving consists of.paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Even if you think the serving sizes are laughable, the information is there on the label. If you really care about what you are eating, you will read the label. And if you don't (my husband), all this discussion has no relevance since you won't read it ever.
Jennie O ground Turkey packaging claims 90% lean on the front of the package. What does that mean to you?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
0 -
I'm sorry did you bother to read the whole thread or just about Pop Tarts?paints5555 wrote: »
Yes, they come 2 to a sleeve and the serving size for poptarts has been 2 pastries for 7 years (since 2016). And understand that the required labeling is for the entire box - it is what you see when you buy it. So a "package" would not be useful unless you were going to eat the entire box as a serving. Since the shelf-life of poptarts is probably only a year or 2, anything showing less than 2 pastries is pretty old. The FDA serving size before that was 1 pastry (since 1995 or so). Before that, nutrition labeling was voluntary and manufacturers could use whatever serving size they wanted to. And unfortunately, it's that time before 1995 that people seem to think still exists- that manufacturers can use whatever serving size they want to make their product look better. It's been almost 30 years since that was true.
I think you missed the part where we were discussing how some serving sizes are laughable. Pop Tarts come 2 in a package. It's unlikely that many just eat 1 Pop Tart and rewrap the other for later. So just being a devil's advocate here, why doesn't Kellogg's put "1 package 400 calories". Wouldn't that help to solve any issue with having to only eat one then wrap the other? They don't because they know everyone will likely eat 2. And they don't really want to freak out their buyers too much. People read labels quickly if that and most of time they just look for how many calories per serving, not always what a serving consists of.paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Even if you think the serving sizes are laughable, the information is there on the label. If you really care about what you are eating, you will read the label. And if you don't (my husband), all this discussion has no relevance since you won't read it ever.
Jennie O ground Turkey packaging claims 90% lean on the front of the package. What does that mean to you?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Yes, I've been reading it from the beginning and thought that one was discussed to death. We had moved on to pop tarts. 90% lean means 10% fat and 90% everything else as packaged. I don't eat individual foods in isolation so 1 particular food that has a higher % of calories from fat may not be meaningful in my overall daily diet. I count grams and find that %'s are way more confusing. The word "deceiving" in this post title implies that manufacturers are doing something underhanded or illegal. They are just following the law.
4 -
paints5555 wrote: »paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
From memory - since I haven't eaten a Poptart in decades - I believe there was a time when what people are saying was true, that one packet, 2 Poptarts, was 2 servings. Perhaps they've been shamed into change, but my better guess would be that a 2016 US labeling rule change maybe had something to do with it. Brace yourself for the bureaucratese:Over the last 20 years, evidence has accumulated demonstrating that container and unit sizes can influence the amount of food consumed. For containers and units of certain sizes, consumers are likely to eat the entire container or unit in one sitting. For other container and unit sizes, consumers may consume the container or unit in one sitting or may consume the container or unit over multiple sittings or share the container or unit contents with other consumers. To address containers that may be consumed in a single-eating occasion, we are requiring that all containers, including containers of products with “large” RACCs (i.e., products with RACCs of at least 100 grams (g) or 100 milliliters (mL)), containing less than 200 percent of the RACC be labeled as a single-serving container.
Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/05/27/2016-11865/food-labeling-serving-sizes-of-foods-that-can-reasonably-be-consumed-at-one-eating-occasion
RACC = reference amounts customarily consumed. I'll leave it to readers more pedantic than I to look into how RACCs are defined and regulated.
Yeah, I know, for many readers here 2016 was prehistoric. But for lots of us, it wasn't that long ago . . . almost yesterday.
It may have changed with the update in 2016 - I have no idea. I just know what the 2016 version said the serving size is 2 pastries and that was 7 years ago. It just means that people haven't really bothered to read the label since they eat them all the time and figure they are the same as they always were. Sounds like this will live on like lots of other things that have changed (trans fat in margarine is my favorite myth).
It doesn't really matter whether the label says a serving is one PopTart for 190-210 calories or two PopTarts for 400-ish calories. What matters is whether you eat one PopTart or two. The packaging makes it more "convenient" to eat two. (But I fooled 'em by keeping a plastic baggie in the cardboard box to stick the "extra" PopTart into, back when I still ate them.)3 -
Uh it's underhanded. When you set numbers up to work in your favor and confuse a buyer (you even admit that % are confusing) just so that it's easier to sell your product. It's NOT 90% and 10% fat. Just look at a serving and do the math. If Jennie O posted "54% of each serving is fat", you think they'd sell as much? Of course not. But with a little manipulation of math, then putting 90% lean DOES ATTRACT A CONSUMER even if they don't read the whole label.paints5555 wrote: »
I'm sorry did you bother to read the whole thread or just about Pop Tarts?paints5555 wrote: »
Yes, they come 2 to a sleeve and the serving size for poptarts has been 2 pastries for 7 years (since 2016). And understand that the required labeling is for the entire box - it is what you see when you buy it. So a "package" would not be useful unless you were going to eat the entire box as a serving. Since the shelf-life of poptarts is probably only a year or 2, anything showing less than 2 pastries is pretty old. The FDA serving size before that was 1 pastry (since 1995 or so). Before that, nutrition labeling was voluntary and manufacturers could use whatever serving size they wanted to. And unfortunately, it's that time before 1995 that people seem to think still exists- that manufacturers can use whatever serving size they want to make their product look better. It's been almost 30 years since that was true.
I think you missed the part where we were discussing how some serving sizes are laughable. Pop Tarts come 2 in a package. It's unlikely that many just eat 1 Pop Tart and rewrap the other for later. So just being a devil's advocate here, why doesn't Kellogg's put "1 package 400 calories". Wouldn't that help to solve any issue with having to only eat one then wrap the other? They don't because they know everyone will likely eat 2. And they don't really want to freak out their buyers too much. People read labels quickly if that and most of time they just look for how many calories per serving, not always what a serving consists of.paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Even if you think the serving sizes are laughable, the information is there on the label. If you really care about what you are eating, you will read the label. And if you don't (my husband), all this discussion has no relevance since you won't read it ever.
Jennie O ground Turkey packaging claims 90% lean on the front of the package. What does that mean to you?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Yes, I've been reading it from the beginning and thought that one was discussed to death. We had moved on to pop tarts. 90% lean means 10% fat and 90% everything else as packaged. I don't eat individual foods in isolation so 1 particular food that has a higher % of calories from fat may not be meaningful in my overall daily diet. I count grams and find that %'s are way more confusing. The word "deceiving" in this post title implies that manufacturers are doing something underhanded or illegal. They are just following the law.
Part of the reason I started a thread like this long ago, was that I had a client eating keto. At first weight loss was good, then leveled off and then completely stopped. She didn't count calories because she was doing keto and told me she was eating the same foods. Well when Jennie O 90% lean turkey came up, I asked her how much of it she was eating. Ended up being a whole package for each meal. "But it's 90% lean!" she insisted thinking it's more protein than fat. Obviously after showing her the math and restructuring her intake, she started to lose weight again.
While you may be able to understanding labeling better than the average consumer, there are buzz words or phrases on them to entice a consumer who isn't as well versed in nutrition. Obviously if they were, we may not have the 70% overweight/obese population in the US that we have now.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
0 -
Yes, people (generally) are bad at math. Way lots of us thought we'd never need math. Even more of us thought we might need a little math, but never quite figured out "story problems". Real adult life is pretty much just a long series of story problems: Car loans, mortgages, retirement planning, home repairs, and . . . yeah . . . nutrition and calories, among a bazillion other things.
Do the food companies exploit our ignorance to obscure things they'd rather not have us think about? Seems probable, to the extent they can do it within the context of labeling laws.
To me, it still seems like the root problem is the "bad at math". That's on us.1 -
Yes, people (generally) are bad at math. Way lots of us thought we'd never need math. Even more of us thought we might need a little math, but never quite figured out "story problems". Real adult life is pretty much just a long series of story problems: Car loans, mortgages, retirement planning, home repairs, and . . . yeah . . . nutrition and calories, among a bazillion other things.
Do the food companies exploit our ignorance to obscure things they'd rather not have us think about? Seems probable, to the extent they can do it within the context of labeling laws.
To me, it still seems like the root problem is the "bad at math". That's on us.
True. Kinda like "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". That's why I'm a believer in teaching critical thinking. People/companies will always try to take advantage, we need to try and see through it.1 -
Uh it's underhanded. When you set numbers up to work in your favor and confuse a buyer (you even admit that % are confusing) just so that it's easier to sell your product. It's NOT 90% and 10% fat. Just look at a serving and do the math. If Jennie O posted "54% of each serving is fat", you think they'd sell as much? Of course not. But with a little manipulation of math, then putting 90% lean DOES ATTRACT A CONSUMER even if they don't read the whole label.paints5555 wrote: »
I'm sorry did you bother to read the whole thread or just about Pop Tarts?paints5555 wrote: »
Yes, they come 2 to a sleeve and the serving size for poptarts has been 2 pastries for 7 years (since 2016). And understand that the required labeling is for the entire box - it is what you see when you buy it. So a "package" would not be useful unless you were going to eat the entire box as a serving. Since the shelf-life of poptarts is probably only a year or 2, anything showing less than 2 pastries is pretty old. The FDA serving size before that was 1 pastry (since 1995 or so). Before that, nutrition labeling was voluntary and manufacturers could use whatever serving size they wanted to. And unfortunately, it's that time before 1995 that people seem to think still exists- that manufacturers can use whatever serving size they want to make their product look better. It's been almost 30 years since that was true.
I think you missed the part where we were discussing how some serving sizes are laughable. Pop Tarts come 2 in a package. It's unlikely that many just eat 1 Pop Tart and rewrap the other for later. So just being a devil's advocate here, why doesn't Kellogg's put "1 package 400 calories". Wouldn't that help to solve any issue with having to only eat one then wrap the other? They don't because they know everyone will likely eat 2. And they don't really want to freak out their buyers too much. People read labels quickly if that and most of time they just look for how many calories per serving, not always what a serving consists of.paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Even if you think the serving sizes are laughable, the information is there on the label. If you really care about what you are eating, you will read the label. And if you don't (my husband), all this discussion has no relevance since you won't read it ever.
Jennie O ground Turkey packaging claims 90% lean on the front of the package. What does that mean to you?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Yes, I've been reading it from the beginning and thought that one was discussed to death. We had moved on to pop tarts. 90% lean means 10% fat and 90% everything else as packaged. I don't eat individual foods in isolation so 1 particular food that has a higher % of calories from fat may not be meaningful in my overall daily diet. I count grams and find that %'s are way more confusing. The word "deceiving" in this post title implies that manufacturers are doing something underhanded or illegal. They are just following the law.
Part of the reason I started a thread like this long ago, was that I had a client eating keto. At first weight loss was good, then leveled off and then completely stopped. She didn't count calories because she was doing keto and told me she was eating the same foods. Well when Jennie O 90% lean turkey came up, I asked her how much of it she was eating. Ended up being a whole package for each meal. "But it's 90% lean!" she insisted thinking it's more protein than fat. Obviously after showing her the math and restructuring her intake, she started to lose weight again.
While you may be able to understanding labeling better than the average consumer, there are buzz words or phrases on them to entice a consumer who isn't as well versed in nutrition. Obviously if they were, we may not have the 70% overweight/obese population in the US that we have now.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
You misunderstood what I said- the % fat is clear as a bell. Trying to add up % calories from fat and try to determine if everything balances out is confusing. Why make it harder than it has to be? The jennio turkey is 10% fat and a serving contributes 12g of fat to my 50g target for the day. I have 38g to eat from other foods. That is what is important to me and it is right there on the label. It could not be clearer.
3
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 389 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 918 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions