Candice Romero

I held a Nutrition and Fitness Health Fair for my co-workers and was shocked at what I discovered. At the grocery store, I decided to first look at the labeling on the front of the product to determine if I felt it would be a healthy item. For instance, cereal was one of my product categories. I wasn’t looking for the obvious, loaded with sugar, kids’ cereals. I was focusing on cereals that adults would buy if they were looking for a healthy, ‘good for you’, cereal. I chose 3 cereals. One was labeled with increased fiber, one was labeled with antioxidants and the other was labeled indicating it is good for your heart.

The claims may have been promising, but the Nutrition facts were a very different story. One of the cereals had 26 grams of sugar which is equivalent to 4 ½ teaspoons of sugar per every ¾ cup serving. I could not believe my eyes! Prior to starting this research for the health fair, I was unaware that 4 grams of sugar is equal to 1 teaspoon of sugar. What makes it worse is that I am a diabetic and a nurse. Therefore, I feel that if I was unaware how grams of sugar translate to teaspoons, there are many other people in the same position.

Many of us rely on the old adage of truth in advertising. I am not saying that these products were falsely advertised, but misleading comes to mind.

Another example is yogurt. One yogurt that was labeled as original and 99% fat free had 26 grams of sugar, while the light version had 14 grams of sugar and the restricted carbs version had only 3 grams of sugar. As a diabetic, I now understand why it is so difficult for me and others to manage diabetes. Many are intimidated by reading the Nutrition facts labeled on products and shop by the labeling on the product and are often doing themselves more harm than good.

This is the case with sodium also. I found one soup product that was an original chicken noodle soup that had 650 mg of sodium per ½ cup serving, which is almost half of your recommended sodium intake for a day. What is worse, when I picked up the can of chicken noodle soup that had a big label on it that said, “25% less sodium”, and the nutrition facts listed that this product had 660mg of sodium per ½ cup serving. It had more sodium than its original counterpart!

As consumers we need to educate ourselves and become more aware of what we are putting into our bodies, but companies need to stop such blatant predatory advertising! Companies should be more responsible with the labeling and claims about their products. Everyone is responsible for their health, but I feel it is wrong for trusted companies to mislead us into purchasing their product because we think we are making a healthier choice for our families when in some cases we are making worse choices.

I just want to tell these companies, “Be honest! We are smart enough to make our own decisions, but let us make well informed decisions!” I do not believe appropriately labeling products will hurt their bottom lines, if anything I think it will improve them. Maybe if they realize it is an embarrassment to put so much sugar or sodium in their products, they will create a new product that really is a healthier choice!

What food label shocks have you experienced?

Graphic Credit:
Sabrina Segal