How Food Companies Purposely Deceive You
There was a time when people could go shopping for food and trust that the food they purchased was as advertised. But no more: Trust is simply no longer possible in our generation. Most food companies now purposely deceive consumers by falsifying information on the front of food packaging.
Let me begin by saying: NEVER ever believe anything you read on the front of any food package. Ever! Learn how to read “Nutrition Facts” labels, which are required by law to be on every food item. The Nutrition Facts label will tell you the truth, IF you know how to read it.
Let me give you two examples of how food companies purposely deceive and trick you into buying their products. We’ll look at two different products. One claims their product contains 0 grams of trans fat, the other claims their product is 99% fat free. Both are lying through their teeth.
First example: Lays Potato Chips
The front label of Lays Potato Chips states their product contains “0 grams trans fat.” But look at the Nutrition Facts label and you will see that one of the ingredients in Lays Potato Chips is “partially hydrogenated oil.” Partially hydrogenated oil is another name for trans fat.
Most everyone knows trans fat is a dangerous man-made chemical not generally found in nature. It was initially created to increase the shelf life of food products. Researchers now know our bodies cannot digest trans fat. Trans fat ends up in our arteries, where it begins to stick and eventually clog blood flow causing heart attacks and strokes.
Harvard researchers found in one study that getting just 3% of your daily calories from trans fat increased the risk of heart disease by 50%. 3% equals roughly the amount of trans fat typically found in a single order of French fries.
Trans fat is also a major contributor to many forms of chronic disease, including cancer and Alzheimer’s. So how does Lays get away with saying their potato chips contain “0 grams trans fat?”
The American food lobby got Congress to pass legislation that allows food producers to disguise trans fat in the food we buy. The law states that if a serving of food contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat, food producers can claim their product contains “0 grams trans fat.” To claim food contains “0 grams trans fat,” food producers must reduce the size of one serving (if their food contains trans fat). That is what Lays has done. They reduced the size of one serving of chips so they could claim their product contains “0 grams trans fat.”
Second Example: Hain Pure Food Chicken Broth
Hain Pure Food produces both a Chicken Broth and Vegetable Broth. Hain Pure Food claims both products are “99% fat free.” That is what is claimed on the front of their food packaging. The truth is both products contain 67% fat. So how does Hain Pure Food get away with saying their product is” 99% fat free?”
Well, let’s first look at the Hain Pure Food Nutrition Facts label and determine what the true fat content is. The Hain Pure Food Nutrition Label states one serving contains 30 calories, and the fat from those calories is 20. In order for there to be only 1% fat in one 30 calorie serving, the fat from calories should be .3 calories But the Hain Pure Food Nutrition Facts label states the fat from one serving is 20. If you divide 30 into 20, you get 67%, not 1%.
So how is it possible for Hain Pure Food to claim their products are 99% fat free? They trick us by claiming the fat percentage by weight, not by calories. Based on the Hain Pure Food Nutrition Facts label, the total weight of one serving is 245 grams. The total weight of fat for one serving is 2 grams. Divide 2 grams by 245 grams and you get .008 grams. .008 grams of fat is less than 1% of the total weight of one serving, and so Hain Pure Food can claim their product is 99% fat free by weight, not by calories. But they don’t tell you they use weight to measure the fat percentage.
The weight of an ingredient in food means nothing. Every health guideline you will read tells us to limit fat intake based on calories, not by weight. Yet every food product you will find in a grocery store lists fat by percentage of weight, not calories. Weight and calories have no relationship to one another in nutrition. What you want to know is the percentage of fat in one serving based on calories.
The law requires fat calories to be listed by a number rather than by percentage. So if you want to know the percentage of fat in one serving, you must take the extra step of dividing the total calories by the number of fat calories. Most people either don’t know how to do that, or are not willing to take the time to do it. Food producers know this. To deceive us, food producers add water to many of their products. Water adds weight, but contributes nothing to calorie content. Knowing this, food producers can then measure fat content by weight and make the claim their product is 99% fat free. There is where the deception lies. Adding water does not lessen the fat percentage measured by calories.
Think of it this way. If you could remove the water from the product, the percentage of fat by calorie count would still remain the same. By adding weight (water) to their products, Food producers can divide the total weight of the product by the total weight of one serving of fat and make claims their product is “99% fat free.” This is how low fat salad dressings, soups, and just about every other food item containing fat that comes in a can or bottle is made in America. Food producers then add in a little thickener, some salt and MSG to increase flavoring so you will not recognize they diluted the product with water.
Pass this article on to those you love. The only way we will ever have hope of living long, healthy lives is to KNOW the food we eat. Unless we are willing to take the time to learn how food producers intentionally deceive us and learn how to read Nutrition Facts labels, our heath will always be in question. It’s your body, your health.
