Hello my Dear readers,
I once wrote an article after being dumbfounded by the confusing descriptions on the products' labels. Would you like to have a close look at my piece?
I am often too sceptical about the messages on the food labels. What figures of content should inform my choice? There is the so called ‘big four’ of components that are vitally important for human health depending on their amount in food we eat. They are energy, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Speaking from my own make-out-of-reading food-content inscriptions, I am sometimes appalled by a certain lack of information on the labels. It seems that the manufacturers deliberately mask something essential by dint of confusing people with special terminology. Let’s have a close look, for instance, at the inscription on a pack of blackberry nectar. It says:
- Content: blackberry mash, sugar, water. (* But, in what proportion each ingredient is there, it is an open question).
- Nutritional information for 100 g: carbs < 12.0 g (* How much exactly, please? Which kind of carbs? Are they pure sugar or with some starchy components, or whatever?).
- Energy for 100g: 48 Kcal, ( = 200 KJs) ( But, what exactly should I gain on? There is another measurement as calories too. How to calculate it relatively to the norm?)
That’s all about figures in this short message from the manufacturer. Hmm. Doesn’t blackberry comprise proteins? Why is there not a word about the amount of water accruing to the fruit mash? What kind of water is it?
It is not deniable that food companies have to bring in the information about content by labelling their produce. So, labels literally hit the shelves of any supermarket. However, it is not as ‘no-brainer’ for an average individual to decipher the information given. In the first place, there is no common tradition in symbolising terms in different countries even among those of united by the EU. As I have mentioned before, one label shows a single figure of energy in Kilojoules, another one pictures it in Kilocalories and the others feature it simply in Calories.
One more question arises when it comes to pursuing the product for its low-fat content. It is of the utmost importance that adults should consume less saturated fat. Unfortunately, labels do not differentiate the figure of fat content at all. To exemplify my arguments, packed yogurt may have as 2.5 g as well as 4.0 g of fat. Nobody can say what kind of fat it is. The buyer is likely to avoid 4.0 g fatty yogurt in preference to the 2.5 g fatty item, because they do not know about whether this fat consists of poly-saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, which in reasonable amounts are salubrious for health, or saturated fat which is heavy and less healthy.
The same problem goes along with salt. This name must not be taken in vain. Salt is everywhere! Thus, how dare they spell it sodium! We do not know what it is. The term ‘sodium’ hits almost all EU- imported-food labels. I am willing to sniffle as it doesn’t flow nicely to an average ear. Moreover, as it has turned out, sodium is not the same as salt, to be honest. To get the amount of salt, we must multiply the figure of sodium by 2.5. E.g. 6 g of salt is equivalent to 2.4 g of sodium.
In my judgment, food companies and their distributers are in a very tight connection in terms of how to buy the consumer in. On this account, one thing I would recommend is do some search for terms and types of measurement before going to the supermarket. Also, the calculator of a smartphone would be in handy on the spot. To those of having got no device for counting, do not hesitate asking a shop assistant to take troubles to help you.
How is it with you when you are in the supermarket?
Thank you so much for reading this
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Erene I