FOOD FRENZY: FOOD LABEL FURY
Reported August 30, 2007
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) — Are food labels frustrating you? You’re not alone.
Karen Method relies on food labels to keep her alive. She has diabetes and has had three heart attacks. But the labels on her foods don’t always make sense.
Russell Rothman, M.D., a health services researcher from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, conducted a study to find out how well Americans understand food labels.
“Just about everybody had some trouble understanding some of the food labels,” Dr. Rothman said.
Can you figure out how many carbs are in a bottle of soda? The nutrition information on the back of one national brand soda reads one serving has 27 grams, but there are two and a half servings in the bottle. That means finishing this bottle will add 67.5 grams of carbohydrates to your daily intake. Don’t worry — only one-third of the participants in Dr. Rothman’s study got it right!
So, always look at the serving size first. Remember, claims like “no trans-fat” mean per serving. Also, sugar alcohol measures the sugar substitutes in the product. Other carbs are the starches that aren’t sugar. The FDA doesn’t regulate low-carb claims on the front of the box, so you’ll have to check that yourself.
For more information, please contact:
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition