FINE PRINT ON FOOD SAYS A MOUTHFUL
Labels reveal ‘ healthy’ products’ surprising contents
If you think all yogurts are healthy, you are fooling yourself. Ditto for cereal boxes emblazoned with the words “whole grain” or “organic.” Harried parents are tempted to buy foods that have a “healthy aura,” such as yogurt or granola bars, especially when they are packaged to drop into a school lunch bag with no need for portioning, packaging or prep.“
These things might have wording on the package that says ‘ gluten- free’, ‘ organic’ or ‘ made with whole grain’, but it doesn’t really say how much whole grain,” said Vashti Verbowski, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Dietitians of Canada. “You could still have a product that is very high in sugar and fat, but low in fibre and still claim all of those things.”
Food marketers use words, phrases and images that they know will resonate with parents and kids.
A lot of convenience foods are positioned in the store at eye level for kids, who quickly become skilled campaigners for foods with the most colourful cartoon characters, according to Verbowski.
“Food companies will use colours, toys and prizes, and kids aren’t really sophisticated enough to know that is a sales tactic,” she said. But it doesn’t end there. Cereal packaging in particular often includes images of fruit even when there is none contained in the product, she said.
In focus groups conducted with 600 children by University of Calgary researchers, children consistently rate foods with pictures of fruit on the packaging as healthy choices. Phrases such as Eating Right, Supergrains and Sensible Solutions have the same effect, as do trusted brands such as Quaker Oats.
Beyond packaging, some foods enjoy an image of healthfulness in the public mind, a halo effect that persists even when the product is highly processed with sweeteners, preservatives and stabilizing agents. The health benefits of individually packaged yogurt cups mixed with several different sugars and syrups are hardly equivalent to those of plain, white unadulterated yogurt, Verbowski said.
Sugar can sneak into an ingredients list in all sorts of less obvious forms, including malts, syrups, molasses, and under stealthy names such as HFCS, invert sugar, fructose, lactose, sucrose, dextrose and maltose.
If sugar shows up in two, three or four different forms in the same product, that is a red flag for Verbowski.
Reading the nutrition facts labels to compare nutrient values in similar items is often frustrated by manufacturers who express those values based on different portion sizes.
Breakfast cereal portions might be a quarter, half, three- quarters or a full cup, requiring serious math skill to determine which has the optimal balance of protein, fibre, sugar and fat, said Sinead Feeney, a registered dietitian at St. Paul’s Hospital.
“I compared two tablespoons of Nutella to a KitKat bar and they came out pretty comparable in protein content, but a chocolate bar isn’t something you would consider eating on a slice of toast for breakfast,” said Feeney.
And despite television commercials that play up the healthy milk and hazelnuts in Nutella, the sugar content is also quite similar to the KitKat bar. Sugar and modified palm oil are the two main ingredients in Nutella.
By contrast, even sweetened peanut butters have a fraction of the sugar and considerably more protein and fibre.
Parents could also easily assume that a granola bar, because of its whole grain content, is always a healthier choice, but many bars are dipped in chocolate or iced with super- sweet yogurt, pushing their sugar content through the roof.
“In a lot of cases you would be better off having a deconstructed granola bar — nuts and fruit, like raisins — so you get those good foods but without the sugary coating and binders,” said Feeney.
Non- dairy beverages made from soy, rice, coconut and almonds also enjoy an aura of healthfulness and are often promoted as healthy choices with words such as “honest”, “natural” and “organic.”
Many — although not all — are fortified with vitamin D and calcium to approximate some of the nutritional value of cow’s milk, but the amounts vary dramatically.
Children under two years of age should not be given dairy alternative beverages as a substitute for milk, she warned.
Just last month, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published a study that found children who consume only non- dairy beverages are more than twice as likely to have low vitamin D levels as children who drank only cow’s milk.
“Parents need to be aware of the vitamin D in their non- dairy beverage, protein and calcium, too,” she said.