Watch What Foods You're Buying

I think you should read this, I read this a few days ago. I knew deception in food labels was going on but I didn’t think it was this bad. I quit buying packaged foods, canned foods, and almost all frozen food. If you’re trying to “eat clean”, you should be buying food fresh, preferably from a farmers market, or a small grocery that specializes in organic foods, bulk foods, and fresh poultry and fish. I’m giving up on any foods with a label.

When it comes to food labels, manufacturers are very good at finding the loopholes in labeling laws and requirements, and subsequently very good at pulling the wool over YOUR eyes. One such loophole is the manufacturer’s ability to claim “zero” grams of fat, or zero grams of trans fat, or zero calories on the label when the product indeed contains plenty of fat, trans fat, and/or calories.

Here’s the law, and how food manufacturers get around it:

Zero grams of fat or zero grams of trans fat: As long as the food item has less than .5g of fat or trans fat, respectively, the label does not need to claim their existence on the label. In fact, the product can even legally market “Zero grams of fat!” or “0 grams of trans fat per serving!”

More on why this is a HUGE problem, and how food manufacturers deepen this loophole in just a minute.

Zero calories per serving: As long as the food item has less than 5 calories per serving, it can be rounded down and labeled as 0 calories.
Deepening the Loophole with Unrealistic Serving Sizes

While .5g of fat or 5 calories may not seem like a big deal, remember that these values are “per serving”, and while an entire package, box, can, or bottle of a product may contain hundreds of calories and loads of fat, as long as they can divide that package into small enough servings to meet the calorie and gram requirements to claim zero, it’s legal.

Legal AND deceptive as hell. This may be the only country in the Western World where the food manufacturers practically write their own regulations.

We don’t know about you, but we get angry when we see food manufacturers outright LYING to consumers on their labels and in the nutrition facts. Some of these products should change the Nutrition Facts header to “Nutrition Lies” and it’d actually be a lot more accurate.

1. Cooking Sprays and Butter Sprays – Cooking sprays are labeled as fat-free but their first ingredient is oil, which is 100% fat. How in the world can this be? Well, the serving size is 1/5th of a second. What? Last time we used a cooking spray (some of the organic ones are useful) it took about 3 seconds to lightly coat the pan's surface. Well, according to the manufacturer, we just used 15 servings.

The bottom line, no one uses the ridiculous and absurd microscopic 1/5th of the second spray suggested serving, which isn’t nearly enough product to be of practical use.

Cooking sprays aren’t fat-free…they are nearly 100% fat. In my example above, a realistic serving actually contains around 5 grams of fat and 45 calories. A far cry from the 0 number reported on their nutrition facts.

The same goes for butter sprays, which are 90%+ fat in most cases. For example, one popular brand of butter spray contains over 800 calories and 90g of fat per bottle, yet it’s labeled as a fat-free, calorie-free product! Yeah, right!

The serving size? One spray. Let’s get real here…no one is using one spray, five sprays, or 10 sprays. In fact, twenty-five sprays equal just one teaspoon, when the serving size for regular butter is 1 tablespoon. When you balance out the serving size to be the same as a serving of butter, you’re looking at 75 sprays to get the same amount.

2. Artificial sweeteners – Not only are artificial sweeteners bad news for your health, but they’re also a top violator of “calorie-free” deceptive labeling practices. Many brands of artificial sweeteners use maltodextrin and/or dextrose (which is pure sugar) as fillers in each packet, and each packet can legally contain up to a full gram of sugar and 5 calories and still be labeled as calorie-free.

We’ve seen people put 3 – 5 packets of this stuff in their coffee or on their cereal…hardly calorie-free and even worse, maltodextrin and dextrose are two of the biggest insulin-spiking carbs around — the entire reason people choose artificial sweeteners over sugar in the first place!

3. Any food that contains “partially hydrogenated” oils in the ingredient list, period. The bottom line, you should have a zero-tolerance attitude toward trans fats. They are the most health-derailing nutrient known to man, and you should be truly consuming ZERO grams per day.

Suppose a product claims “Zero grams of trans fat per serving”, especially if they specify “per serving”. In that case, they are almost always playing the serving size game and you’re very likely to see partially hydrogenated oils on the list of ingredients when you flip the package over. If so, avoid it like the plague.

I knew labels couldn’t be trusted but I thought they just fudged on the numbers a little, I didn’t know manufacturers actually deceived you on purpose. Can you call that scamming?

 ability to claim “zero” grams of fat, or zero grams of trans fat, or zero calories on the label when in fact the product does indeed contain plenty of fat, trans fat, and/or calories.

Here’s the law, and how food manufacturers get around it:

Zero grams of fat or zero grams of trans fat: As long as the food item has less than .5g of fat or trans fat, respectively, the label does not need to claim their existence on the label. In fact, the product can even legally market “Zero grams of fat!” or “0 grams of trans fat per serving!”

More on why this is a HUGE problem, and how food manufacturers deepen this loophole in just a minute.

Zero calories per serving: As long as the food item has less than 5 calories per serving, it can be rounded down and labeled as 0 calories.
Deepening the Loophole with Unrealistic Serving Sizes

While .5g of fat or 5 calories may not seem like a big deal, remember that these values are “per serving”, and while an entire package, box, can, or bottle of a product may contain hundreds of calories and loads of fat, as long as they can divide that package into small enough servings to meet the calorie and gram requirements to claim zero, it’s legal.

Legal AND deceptive as hell. This may be the only country in the Western World where the food manufacturers practically write their own regulations.

We don’t know about you, but we get angry when we see food manufacturers outright LYING to consumers on their labels and in the nutrition facts. Some of these products should change the Nutrition Facts header to “Nutrition Lies” and it’d actually be a lot more accurate.

1. Cooking Sprays and Butter Sprays – Cooking sprays are labeled as fat-free but their first ingredient is oil, which is 100% fat. How in the world can this be? Well, the serving size is 1/5th of a second. What? Last time we used a cooking spray (some of the organic ones are useful) it took about 3 seconds to lightly coat the pan's surface. Well, according to the manufacturer, we just used 15 servings.

The bottom line, no one uses the ridiculous and absurd microscopic 1/5th of the second spray suggested serving, which isn’t nearly enough product to be of practical use.

Cooking sprays aren’t fat-free…they are nearly 100% fat. In my example above, a realistic serving actually contains around 5 grams of fat and 45 calories. A far cry from the 0 number reported on their nutrition facts.

The same goes for butter sprays, which are 90%+ fat in most cases. For example, one popular brand of butter spray contains over 800 calories and 90g of fat per bottle, yet it’s labeled as a fat-free, calorie-free product! Yeah, right!

The serving size? One spray. Let’s get real here…no one is using one spray, or five sprays, or 10 sprays. In fact, twenty-five sprays equal just one teaspoon, when the serving size for regular butter is 1 tablespoon. When you balance out the serving size to be the same as a serving of butter, you’re looking at 75 sprays to get the same amount.

2. Artificial sweeteners – Not only are artificial sweeteners bad news for your health, but they’re also a top violator of “calorie-free” deceptive labeling practices. Many brands of artificial sweeteners use maltodextrin and/or dextrose (which is pure sugar) as fillers in each packet, and each packet can legally contain up to a full gram of sugar and 5 calories and still be labeled as calorie-free.

We’ve seen people put 3 – 5 packets of this stuff in their coffee or on their cereal…hardly calorie-free and even worse, maltodextrin and dextrose are two of the biggest insulin-spiking carbs around — the entire reason people choose artificial sweeteners over sugar in the first place!

3. Any food that contains “partially hydrogenated” oils in the ingredient list, period. The bottom line, you should have a zero-tolerance attitude toward trans fats. They are the most health-derailing nutrient known to man, and you should be truly consuming ZERO grams per day.

Suppose a product claims “Zero grams of trans fat per serving”, especially if they specify “per serving”. In that case, they are almost always playing the serving size game and you’re very likely to see partially hydrogenated oils on the list of ingredients when you flip the package over. If so, avoid it like the plague.

I knew labels couldn’t be trusted but I thought they just fudged on the numbers a little, I didn’t know manufacturers actually deceived you on purpose. Can you call that scamming?

I think you should read this, I read this a few days ago. I knew deception in food labels was going on but I didn’t think it was this bad. I quit buying packaged foods, canned foods, and almost all frozen food. If you’re trying to “eat clean”, you should be buying food fresh, preferably from a farmers market, or a small grocery that specializes in organic foods, bulk foods, and fresh poultry and fish. I’m giving up on any foods with a label.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.