Grocery shopping can be confusing and overwhelming with the many food options lining store shelves. All those colorful packages scream at you to buy them, but are they healthy? That’s where food labels come in handy — if you know how to decode them.
Food manufacturers use certain tricks to make their products seem healthier than they are. In this article, I’ll expose some of the ways food labels mislead consumers and teach you the insider secrets companies don’t want you to know. You’ll learn how to see through the marketing hype and truly understand what you’re buying. Let’s dig in!
Serving Size Shenanigans
One area where food labels get sneaky is with serving sizes. Companies often set unrealistic serving sizes to make the calories and other nutrients seem lower.
For example, a pint of ice cream may list 1⁄2 cup as a serving size. The container has four servings, but most people eat the whole pint at once. This quadruples the calories and nutrients.
Some other shockingly small serving sizes I’ve seen include:
- 1 oz for chips when the normal serving is a handful
- 1/4 cup for cereal when most people eat 1 to 2 cups
- 2 tbsp for peanut butter when people use 4 tbsp on a sandwich
- 1/4 bottle for a sports drink when the whole thing is usually consumed
When reading labels, I always pay more attention to the total numbers for the entire container instead of trusting the serving size data. Don’t let tiny serving sizes fool you into thinking you’re getting a healthier product.
The Fib on Fibers
Here’s another area where food labels tell fibs: fiber content. You’ve probably heard you should aim for 25–30g of fiber per day, so seeing a high fiber callout on the front of a package seems like good news.
However, food manufacturers are sneaky with fibers in two ways:
First, they can add processed types of fiber like inulin, maltodextrin, and chicory root to boost the numbers. However, these isolated fibers don’t provide the same health benefits as the natural fiber in whole foods.
Second, companies subtract these added fibers when calculating net carbs. So that “light” bread with 12g carbs and 8g fiber has 20g total carbs. This fiber deception makes the carb and calorie count appear lower than it is.
Always read beyond the big fiber number on the front and check the ingredient list for added fibers. Look at total carbs for the real picture.
The Protein Pretenders
Another trendy nutrient called on food packages is protein. However, not all protein is created equal. Manufacturers love to tout protein content from unhealthy sources or use tricks to inflate it.
Some examples I watch out for:
- Plant proteins like soy and pea protein isolates and concentrates — these overly processed forms aren’t as healthy as protein from whole foods.
The protein in the package is mostly water weight, so when you consider hydration, you get less protein than claimed.
- Adding protein powders to products like bars, smoothies, and snacks — cheap additives to boost protein numbers.
- Counting the protein of other ingredients as part of the total — for example: milk’s protein being included on top of a cereal’s grams.
As with fiber, check the ingredient list and do the math yourself. Make sure the protein comes from whole food sources instead of isolates.
The Percentages Game
Another area food labels try to misdirect you is with percent daily values. A product may claim it provides 50% of your vitamin C — but 50% of what?
Companies hide the fact that percentages are based on recommended dietary allowances (RDA) and daily value (DV) for nutrients. The RDA is for vitamins, while the DV is for fat, carbs, and fiber.
Here’s the inside scoop they don’t advertise:
- RDAs are the minimums needed to prevent deficiency, not the optimal amounts for good health.
- The DV for fat, carbs, etc was set very HIGH because it was based on the typical American diet.
So a food can provide 100% DV for nutrients like fat but still be unhealthy. Some cereal brands pride themselves on 10g of sugar per serving, but that’s 25% DV based on days when people ate way more sugar. See through the percentage hype!
Instead of relying on DV percentages, I prioritize the actual grams, ingredients, and nutrient sources.
The Best By Baloney
Finally, let’s talk about expiration and “best by” dates. Manufacturers want you to toss out perfectly good food once it hits those dates. But here’s what they aren’t telling you:
- Date labels are not required by federal law (except for baby formula)
- No standard exists for how companies set dates — it’s often arbitrary
- Best by, sell by, and use by dates refer to peak quality, not safety
- Dates don’t indicate spoilage — use sight, smell and taste instead
- Milk and eggs last weeks past their stamped dates if handled properly
- Frozen foods are safe indefinitely if frozen consistently
- Pantry items like grains, nut butter, canned goods are fine for months or years after opening
So don’t let these dates dupe you into wasting good food or money. Use common sense cues to determine if an item is still wholesome. Stop falling for the expiration date tricks!
Conclusion
As you can see, food labels use a lot of sly tactics to make products seem healthier and higher quality than they are. But now that you know the secrets that food brands don’t want you to know, you can make better choices.
Read every section of the label carefully. Check the ingredient list for red flags. Do the math yourself instead of trusting their serving sizes, fiber counts, protein claims, and percentages. Finally, use your senses rather than dates to determine safety.
Armed with the facts, we can see through the food labeling facade. No more letting tricky labels fool you at the grocery store!
Have any other food label “gotchas” I should add? Let me know in the comments below.
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