Food Labeling Lies

In one of the most rigorous studies ever conducted to determine how well people comprehend the information provided on food nutrition labels, researchers have found that the reading and math skills of a significant number of people may not be sufficient to extract the needed information, according to an article published in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

So after seeing that report and of course precious little on what the problems really were that people had trouble with I thought I would pull out a box of Honey Nut Cheerios (They are for the kids, really I am not just right now popping them in my mouth as an evening snack) and a box of Kellogg�s All Bran and am going to try to decipher what the lies are on the labeling.

A List of Food Labeling Lies

1. First of all we all need to know that labels lie. The best example of lying on labels is that PAM cooking spray is low in fat….It is all fat folks but the “serving size” is so low in actual grams of fat that the company can call it fat free or some ridiculous thing.

2. Serving Size - This is dumb but on the Honey Nut Cheerios it says that a serving is 3/4 of a cup or 30 grams I think because they want to use the fact that it is only 110 calories a serving (without milk, I tried to eat my cereal this morning with water instead and it was terrible), my Kellogg�s All Bran says that a serving is 1/2 cup which is actually 36 grams. The difference in this case is that the All Bran wants to use the number of 12 grams of Fiber per serving so they decided that I should eat a half cup as a serving (I really eat about a cup instead in real life).
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