The truth behind food-package label terminology
You’ve bought them: Those foods whose labels trumpet, “reduced sodium,” “low in fat” and “healthy choice.”
But should we be taking such claims with a grain of salt? Here’s what we discovered about some common food terms. Low in Fat We need fat for energy and it helps us absorb vitamins. However, too much unsaturated fat, the so-called “good” fat that can help lower cholesterol, may lead to weight gain. Saturated fats (found in meat, for instance) and trans fats (in bakery products, for example) can increase the risk of heart disease.
Health Canada requires that a product bearing a “low in fat” claim have no more than three grams of fat in the quantity of food specified on the nutrition facts label.
Problem is, the quantity of food specified could be absurdly low — a third of a cup, for example, when most people would eat a cup or more.
As well, fat is often the ingredient that gives a product taste and texture, says Toronto dietitian Rosie Schwartz. “In ice cream, if the fat’s removed then something else was put in, like sugar, to make it taste better.”
You can see where this is going. Sodium-reduced Sodium, found in salt, helps regulate bodily function, including fluid levels, gives taste to food and helps preserve it. Too much — and Canadians consume more than double our daily requirement, according to Health Canada — can lead to high blood pressure and health risks, like heart disease.
Food companies are slowly reducing sodium content, but it remains high even in many products marketed as containing less. One variety of Campbell’s condensed tomato soup, for example, boasts that it has 25-percent less sodium than the regular variety. However, at 360 milligrams per serving, that’s still 15 per cent of the maximum daily sodium intake (Tolerable Upper Intake Limit or UL) of 2,300 mg recommended by Health Canada and a whopping 24 per cent of the lower intake (Adequate Intake or AI) of 1,500 mg that Health Canada actually recommended for people ages 14 to 50.
At present, food companies base the percentage of sodium in their products on the UL of 2,300 milligrams. Dietitians of Canada, among others, would like Health Canada to adopt the lower AI amount as the standard for measuring sodium content.
Strategies for truly reducing sodium in your diet include shunning prepackaged and restaurant food in favour of home-cooked meals using herbs rather than sodium for seasoning. As well, don’t add salt when eating. Source of Omega-3 Health Canada says to consume about 3.5 grams of omega-3 fatty acids per day. Found in flaxseed, oily fish like salmon and elsewhere, omega-3 may protect against coronary disease and reduce the risk of dementia.
That doesn’t mean much when it comes to processed and prepacked foods that strut their omega-3 content, according to nutrition watchdog and obesity expert Yoni Freedhoff, who teaches family medicine at the University of Ottawa.
“If you look at foods that have omega-3 added, the amount is minuscule. With one kind of bread we saw, you’d have to eat 17 loaves to get the amount of omega-3 you need.”
In fact, Freedhoff says he pays “zero attention” to health claims on the labels of grocery store items. “If a box needs to convince you that a food is good for you, it probably isn’t.” No Added Sugar Watch out for this one, says Schwartz. There may not be any refined sugar added to a fruit spread, for example, but it could have concentrated fruit juice in it. Not only is the juice naturally sugary, but during the concentration process, the fruit’s fibre, antioxidants and other beneficial ingredients have been stripped away.
Net result: You feel righteous, but your body doesn’t.
New York Times writer Michael Moss takes such apparent legerdemain among food manufacturers to a whole other level in his recent book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
Moss argues that food companies long ago figured out how sugar, salt and fat ignite the pleasure centres of our brains. So the companies perform a clever ingredient dance in formulating processed foods that keep us coming back for more. A product may sport a “low-salt” label, he says, but it will just have more fat or sugar to keep us hooked. Rampant obesity, diabetes and other health woes are the outcome. Light (or Lite) The word means fewer potentially harmful ingredients like fat, right? Well, maybe. Health Canada says the term “light” is allowed only for foods with reduced fat or calories, but that it can also be used to describe “sensory characteristics,” like taste or colour.
As a result, Schwartz says consumers often assume light olive oil is healthy when, in fact, it’s just lighter in colour, can have the same fat content as regular oil, and, being highly processed, has lost many of its naturally occurring health benefits, including the presence of cholesterol-battling ingredients.
Solution: Buy extra virgin olive oil, which is the least-processed variety. Other claims Label statements, like “healthy choice,” are usually meaningless. They are developed by businesses or third parties, not the government, says Health Canada. Label information has to be true and not misleading, says the department, but consumers shouldn’t rely on such vague claims when choosing food.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Health Check labelling program has also come in for the occasional thumping. The program allows its Health Check logo on foods that meet certain criteria, but when that logo appears, for example, on canned vegetable juices containing up to 480 milligrams of sodium per serving — just under one-third of Health Canada’s lower daily limit — critics shake their heads.
“It’s abusing the public trust,” says Freedhoff, a high-decibel critic of the program. “It doesn’t care much about sodium or sugar. It misinforms consumers.”
Schwartz is less critical of the program itself. “I think the criteria should be stricter, but they’re using Health Canada figures as their guide and I’m not sure Health Canada should be used as a guide for some things.”
In 2012, Postmedia News reported that between 2006 and 2010, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) had identified inaccurate nutritional information on product labels from major food companies, including Heinz and Kraft, as well as organic producers, like Eden Organic. Of 621 products tested, 360 (58 per cent) had some inaccurate information. Kraft, for example, claimed its Ritz Real Cheddar Cheese crackers contained no cholesterol whereas CFIA testing revealed they contained 3.2 mg per portion.
Most companies told Postmedia News that they change the labels when CFIA identifies a problem. Because of natural differences in ingredients and irregularities in testing equipment, CFIA allows for a variance of up to 20 per cent on labels’ nutritional information.
A subsequent Postmedia News story revealed that between 2008 and 2011, anywhere from 74 to 84 per cent of imported foods tested by CFIA contained misleading health claims or incorrect nutritional information. Bottom line? Take a broad, unprocessed, non-prepackaged approach to what you put in your mouth, says Freedhoff. “What I care about is overall food consumption patterns. That’s getting fruits and vegetables in your daily diet, eating fish, reducing the trans fats.”
For more on understanding food labels, go to Healthycanadians.gc.ca and click on food at the top of the page then food labels.