When you go grocery shopping, are you reading (or attempting to reading) the packaging labels on the food you buy, or are you throwing items into the cart without a second thought?
Don’t be embarrassed if the latter sounds more like you—most people do it that way.
But whether or not you read labels, I’m here to tell you that food manufacturers are hiding things from us in those labels. So what secrets are they trying to keep from us?
The Department of Health in Britain did a study and found that the majority of people were clueless regarding the hidden ingredients in their food. Out of 2,000 adults, 77% got more questions wrong than right.
So what exactly is it that food manufacturers are hiding from us?
They like to hide the truth under deceptive words and phrases that don’t sound so bad.
If we knew what we were actually putting into our bodies, we probably wouldn’t buy their product.
And by the way, did you know that the law allows for a margin of error of up to 20% for the stated value vs. the actual value?
That means that if they say something contains 100 calories, it could be 120 calories, and still be within legal range. This applies to all the ingredients on the label, not just calories. So how in the world are we supposed to stick to a diet our doctor may have recommended, or watch our intake of certain nutrients if we don’t even know how much of something we may or may not be eating?
Let’s look closer at some of the words and phrases we find on labels and see what they are hiding from us…
Sugar – First of all, sugar-free does not mean calorie or carbohydrate free. Putting sugar-free, sugarless or no added sugar on a label doesn’t tell you anything about the sugar derivatives or substitutes that have as many calories as table sugar and may be more harmful. Hidden sugars? They can be found under alternate names such as corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fruit juice concentrates, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, cane juice, cane syrup, sucrose…
In fact, most any ingredient ending in ‘ose’ on your packaging label is referring to some form of sugar.
Gluten – This is another ingredient that food manufacturers love to hide under other names. In fact, the U.S Food & Drug Administration does not even require manufacturers to disclose gluten on food labels (only wheat). Many labels hide gluten under Latin terms for wheat, barley, and rye. If you see any of these on the label, there is gluten inside:
- Triticum vulgare (wheat)
- Triticale (cross between wheat & rye)
- Hordeum vulgare (barley)
- Secale cereal (rye)
- Triticum spelta (spelta is a form of wheat)
These ingredients always contain gluten:
- Wheat protein or starch/hydrolyzed wheat protein or starch
- Wheat flour, bread flour, bleached flour
- Bulgar (a form of wheat)
- Malt (made from barley)
- Couscous or farina (made from wheat)
- Pasta (made from wheat unless specified otherwise)
- Seitan (made from wheat gluten and commonly used in vegetarian meals)
- Wheat or barley grass, wheat germ or extract (will be cross contaminated)
Whole Grain-If the label says whole grain, check the package to be sure. True whole grain foods should have at least 3 grams of fiber per serving and preferably more than that.
Those are the easy ones; now let’s look at the darkest secrets that are hiding in the supermarket shelves. To begin with, there are more than 3,000 food chemicals purposely added to our food supply. How does this help us stay healthy? It’s downright frightening because as a result of this, many foods have become so industrially processed that in some cases we could just call them an edible food-like substance, a synthetic man-made product, as opposed to actual nourishing, healthy food!
Here are just a handful of some of the nastiest food additives we are consuming on a regular basis:
BHT- (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) Used to prevent oxidation in a wide variety of foods and cosmetics, this was listed by the National Toxicology Program (NTD) in 2005 as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen”. It is used in such things as jet fuel, rubber petroleum products and embalming fluid! If that isn’t enough to make you cringe, the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) warns that BHT should not be allowed to enter the environment, can cause liver damage, and is harmful to aquatic organisms.
High Fructose Corn Syrup- We see this one all the time, don’t we? Studies have shown that this contains reactive carbonyl molecules that can cause tissue damage leading to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. More recent studies have even revealed that nearly half of tested samples contain mercury! Now you know that every time you eat something that contains high fructose corn syrup, you are also having a nice dose of mercury to go with it. Mercury is one of the most toxic materials known to man, yet we are unknowingly consuming it on a daily basis!
Yellow #5- (or any colorant added to food) – These are commonly derived from coal tar and many contain lead and arsenic (more lethal toxins anyone?). They also have the potential to cause cancer.
Soybean Oil- More than half of all soybean crops grown in the U.S. are genetically modified (GMO). There is mounting scientific evidence showing that the genetic engineering of plant seeds may have unexpected and negative impacts on human health.
Propylene Glycol Alginate (E-405)- Used as a food thickener, stabilizer and emulsifier, this is derived from alginic acid esterified and combined with propylene glycol which has many interesting industrial uses such as automotive antifreezes and airport runway de-icers! Propylene Glycol Alginate is often listed as an E number. Many ingredients with E- numbers are already banned in many countries due to the fact that they are known to cause problems in humans, particularly allergies.
Some other items that aren’t quite so toxic, but that you still really don’t want to see on a food label are:
- Olestra- this is a fake fat that eliminates good vitamins from the system and can cause major digestive upset.
- Hydrogenated- this is used as a code word for trans-fat in any form.
- Nitrates-often used to preserve meat and have been linked to creating a powerful cancer-causing chemical in the body.
- Lard Shortening- pure animal fat.
- Carmine– this is a fancy word for a red food coloring made from the smashed bodies of the red cochineal beetle. Doesn’t the word “carmine” sound much nicer?
- Yeast Extract- another name for monosodium glutamate, more commonly known as MSG.
The labeling deceptions aren’t limited to the side labels. Some you can find right on the front of the package are:
- “Fortified”, “Enriched”, “Added”, “Extra”, “Plus”- any of these generally mean that the food has been altered or processed in some way.
- “Fruit drink”- usually little or no real fruit is inside, but there is most likely a lot of sugar. Look for something instead that says 100% fruit juice.
- “Natural” or “Made from natural”-means the manufacturer started with a natural source. Once processed however, the food may not resemble much of anything natural.
- “Organically grown”, “Organic”, “Pesticide-free”, “No artificial ingredients”- these mean nothing. Trust only labels that say “certified organically grown” or “certified organic”.
- “Creamy”, “Cheesy”, “Chocolatey”, etc. – the product does not actually contain any real forms of the ingredients ending in “y”.
Lastly, here are some tips to remember when shopping and trying to decipher those purposely confusing labels:
- The top three ingredients listed are what you are primarily eating.
- Stick with ingredients you recognize. Simpler is generally healthier.
- Bear in mind that manufacturers are *not* required to list chemical contaminants.
- Words like “sprouted” or “raw” usually indicate higher-quality foods.
Now that you have had a peek inside the secret life of food, try to bear these things in mind when you make food choices. This is merely the tip of the iceberg, but it is a start to protecting ourselves and of becoming aware of what we put into our bodies.
