read time: 284 words, about a minute
Merisant, manufacturer of Equal (that would be the blue packet) is suing Splenda (that would be the yellow packet) manufacturer McNeil Nutritionals. They’re suing for $176 million or so.
Charging big decrease in their sales since Splenda entered the market. Ok, technically they’re charging that the Splenda slogan “made from sugar so it taste like sugar” is misleading. They’re only looking out for you 
Symantics? Wellllll…
Splenda is sucralose.
They start with a sugar molocule and chlorinate and chemically alter it to produce “fructo-galactose”. Such a thing does not appear in nature and you cannot break it down and digest it.
Since it’s a “food” – well that’s how it’s technically classified, it does not go through that same kind of testing a drug would go through.
Chlorinated molecules are carcinogenic. They aren’t digested but instead accumulate in your fat cells.
There has been a swarm of “symptoms” associated with Splenda. There’s also quite a bit of politics with it.
Now McNeil claims that it does not say it is made WITH sugar so how can ANY consumer (I believe they don’t distinguish between literate or not, PhD in chemistry or not) interpret made FROM sugar so it tastes LIKE sugar as actually being in any way related to sugar.
Corporate jostling aside –
Sugar creates inflammation in your body which leads to nothing good.
Artificial sweeteners completely mess with your satiety brain signals… you’re not “satiated”, you keep eating…
Splenda controls nearly 60% of the sweetener market. Is it beeter or worse than the competitors? They’re all chemical toxins. I don’t see a point in arguing over which toxin is worse. Avoid them all.
Want to know more about Splenda…
Sucralose Toxicity Info Center
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read time: 119 words, just a minute
Leslie Mikkelsen, Prevention Institute dietitian presented a report sponsored by sponsored by the Strategic Alliance for Health Food and Activity Environments at the 2007 California Childhood Obesity Conference.
The report - “Where’s the Juice? Fruit Content of the Most Highly Advertised Children’s Food and Beverages” – revealed the findings of their study:
Product selection criteria –
- Identified by Kaiser Family Foundation as a top spending advertised food on kid’s TV shows
- Picture of fruit or the word fruit on the packaging
- Commonly available at the grocery store
37 products examined…
-> 19 contained NO fruit ingredients (51%)
-> 6 had 10% or less fruit juice (21%)
-> 2 had 100% fruit juice (6%)
-> 10 had real fruit (27%)
Yep, ya gotta read the label.
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read time: 504 words, about three minutes
Oopps, Kraft Foods is being sued AGAIN for a product label.
As reported in the Palm Beach Post, Linda Rex of Boyton Beach, Florida has filed a “deceptive packaging” lawsuit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
The Kraft legal department and hurry up and re-label it department must be much too busy for any time off these days.
The product in question:
Capri Sun juice drink
The deception:
“All Natural”
Capri Sun in fact contains the way too prevalent ingredient HFCS – High Fructose Corn Syrup.
We’ll concede corn is “natural”, but as for this concoction… home chemistry buffs aren’t well equipped enough to produce it. It’s strictly an industrial product.
I’ve assigned it to the worst food products team.
HFCS is a sweetener. Much cheaper than cane or beet sugar. But, by golly, it’s not actually a food… it’s a concoction. Not recognized by the body as food.
So? Well here’s some so… when you eat calories from real foods, they tickle your satiety center and turn off hunger signals in your brain.
HFCS isn’t recognized as food. No effect on satiety. So you keep eating past “full”. Which of course is over eating. Which of course translates into weight gain… you’ve seen the movie, probably even had a starring role more than once.
HFCS has become VERY prevalent in packaged foods since it hit the market in 1967, INCLUDING “low fat” foods. People tend to choose low fat foods for the single reason that they perceive they are consuming fewer calories.
***Once again, reading the label is wonderously illuminating***
side note: the word “natural” has no regulated definition. You’ve no doubt noticed how frequently the word graces the labels of food and cosmetic products. Terms such as “low fat” and “organic” do have regulated definitions. So don’t fall for the perception that natural on the label means healthy.
George Bray, professor of medicine at Louisiana State University is an authority on obesity. According to Bray, consumption of HFCS increased more than 1000% between 1970 and 1990, mirroring the upward trend in obesity statistics.
Americans now consume 36 pounds of HFCS a year… 128,000 calories.
HFCS has been associated with liver toxicity, specifically – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. It’s also believed to decrease the effectiveness of insulin… leading to overeating and diabetes.
Another issue with high fructose corn syrup - by continually upping the sweetness in products, your tastebuds become less sensitive to small amounts of sweetness. You come to “demand” more sweetness. Same with salt. Folks that eat heavily salted foods don’t detect mild saltings.
Marc Firestone, Kraft’s executive vice president for corporate and legal affairs, said well shucks, we’ve been reformulating that line and packaging for about a year. By golly, the new Capri Sun will be going into production in two weeks.
Firestone said:
“The new packaging … will say that Capri Sun contains ‘no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives’ …With this action, the phrase ‘All Natural’ is being removed from the package”
Hmmm, Kraft folded pretty quickly on this lawsuit. I guess the stars were (almost) aligned for them being just two weeks from label makeover.
You’ve seen it with trans-fats. I predict you’ll next see a big push against HFCS.
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Meanwhile, across the pond… Prince Charles is a major “green” guy. Not sarcasm there. He not only does a lot to promote sustainable farming and eco-friendly habits, he lives his own life that way, runs his farm that way.
He started a company called Duchy Originals that sells organic and eco-friendly products.
Their products will soon have a “life cycle” label which will quantify emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases blamed for warming the climate.
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read time: 328 words, about two minutes
Kraft Foods is being sued by Brenda Lifsey of Southern California. The lawsuit alleges fraud because the guacamole dip made by Kraft actually contains just a wee bit of avocado… less than 2% actually.
Lifsey said “It just didn’t taste avocadoey”.
What’s in Kraft guacamole dip:
partially hydrogenated soybean and coconut oils, corn syrup, whey and food starch. Yellow and blue dyes give it the green color.
Kraft said no way were they deceiving customers. In fact Kraft’s VP of Corporate Affairs, Claire Regan said:
“We think customers understand that it isn’t made from avocado. All of the ingredients are listed on the label for consumers to reference.”
Oh my gosh.
I think what she means is:
Chose your food based on the ingredients rather than the front of the label and the hype or promise of the advertising. Yes, I believe the Kraft Food conglomerate is advocating that you - the consumer - should read the label.
If we extend the logic here, I would deduce that Kraft believes customers want avocado free guacamole. And similarly, customers want other chemical imitations of food.
Afterall, their spokes person there says customers understand the dip is some chemical avocado imitation. Customers buy it; therefore, they want chemical imitation food products. Afterall, Kraft is a for profit company. If no one wanted what they marketed… no sales, no profit, no company, thank-you, goodnight.
Thus either customers want chemical imitation food products, or, they believe they’re buying wholesome products. Either way, Kraft stays in business as is.
Funny how customer Brenda Lifsey just didn’t understand it wasn’t made from avocados. Oh and California avocado growers didn’t seem to understand either. They’ll be following the case.
Meanwhile, back in LA, you’d be hard pressed to find the marvy, lacking-in-avocado, guacamole dip on store shelves. It’s off for a label makeover.
Avocados are a great source of Vitamin E, potassium, folic acid and fiber. Guess it’s better to make your own guacamole.
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