Healthy Bytes

Labels - what’s really inside

Sticking with our Thanksgiving theme, I popped into a neighborhood chain grocery store… camera in hand.
I took a bunch of pictures of labels… I take bad pictures :<

So I pulled these up on line...

Some Nutrition labels are hard to find.
Ocean Spray is one of them. Here’s the Nutrition Data for Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce from NutritionData.com.
It doesn’t include the ingredient list, but as you can see: SUGAR… 105 grams

Next on the list - stuffing:

You have your Nutrition Facts from Nutrition Data which show… yep, once again: SUGAR. 3 grams
Then you have the ingredient list - ouch. Sugars, trans-fats and other fun things.

Now for the Sweet Potatoe course…

More SUGAR - 35 grams - (and we’re not even close to desert yet). Ahh, but check out the Vitamin A.

And now for desert…

Finally, a manufacturer that doesn’t hide the label.
This is Libby’s Easy Pumpkin Pie Mix. Comes in a can.
Trans-fat. It says 0g, but total fat is 0.5g. The FDA allows the label to say 0g if it is 0.5 of less. The FDA only likes whole numbers I guess.
And of course, there’s sugar. Natural Flavors is a code phrase for MSG. Vitamin A is good.

As we say (repetatively), the back of the label can be quite revealing.

This entry was posted on Mon, 20.Nov.2006 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.