Read food labels without being tricked

Natural. Organic. Wholegrain. Added minerals. Fortified with vitamins. Gluten free.

Sounds healthy, right? That’s what food companies would like you to think. 

It’s shocking how many people are misled this way. Just because the pack says it’s healthy doesn’t make the product healthy! Dr. Temple Northup of Houston University found how companies use these terms that sound healthy, to trick the brain into disregarding unhealthy ingredient reads in products these days. So how do we actually identify this lie?

Read the ingredients right. What is the product mostly made of? If the top three ingredients include a type of sugar, refined grains, or hydrogenated oils, the product can be considered unhealthy.

A lot of times, serving sizes mentioned on the pack are misleadingly small. For instance, a pack of 300ml juice, might mention “each 100 ml serving contains 13.5 g of sugar” – this essentially translates into 40g of sugar in the entire pack of juice!

In addition to misleading claims, manufacturers often use the customers’ lack of expertise to their advantage. Like, adding sugars that don’t even sound like they could actually be sugar, for e.g. high fructose corn syrup (which is actually hazardous to health over time). 

The consumer protection act passed in 1986 demands safety, information, choice, representation, redress and consumer education – but more often than not, this has been trampled upon. These days, consumers can’t even make an informed choice in buying safe and healthy products, thanks to the lack of complete information, and manipulation in advertisements.

I was surprised to find popular kids’ nutrition drinks that dominate the Indian market give misleading information. Their main selling point was giving your child the goodness of calcium, protein, vitamin D, etc. However the brand itself contained nothing but sugar, cocoa flavour and some cheap, synthetic vitamins / minerals added for namesake. The product did not contain added quality proteins, and there’s a fine print at the bottom that said “if taken with 200ml of milk”. So whatever little protein and calcium provided is from the milk itself – which, by the way is not enough in the first place. Why would I want to give my child something that doesn’t add actually value to their health?

Same goes with so many other brands and products. Is your ‘organic’ rice really organic? A popular brand of rice is named “X” Organics…  however they actually do not make the claim that the rice actually is organics. Their company brand is “X” organics, and its  implied the content also would  be. However, that  was not the case  when I actually checking with them. Are your nutrition bars really nutritious, or are they just loaded with unnecessary sugar and low quality locally sourced protein? Is your cereal really sugar-free? Clearly not. 

The best way to avoid being misled by food companies, I’ve realised, is learning how to read food labels, and avoiding processed foods as much as we can. There are always healthy substitutes, quality protein and supplements available, which help reach optimum levels of health.