It’s no surprise that some food labels are misleading or contain empty health claims. KIND recognizes all this fluff and our way to be transparent and fight the marketing gimmicks is by just truly using simple ingredients you can see and pronounce. A recent report examines food labeling and calls for changes in labeling policies, but with KIND, what you see is what you get.
The FDA has issued a warning letter to food companies about the importance of accurate nutrition labeling and reprimanded their false or misleading claims.
A recent study by the journal Health Affairs highlights the substantial increase in children’s snacking habits and analyzes the unhealthy snack foods that they tend to consume. That’s why the right kind of snacking – healthy snacking – is so important.
Manipulation of serving sizes is a serious problem. At the end of the day consumers need to use common sense and look for nutritionally rich foods and not hide in ‘100 calorie’ claims of products with empty calories - ie chips, soda, etc. But it would help society if reasonable standards were enforced so that unscrupulous food companies wouldn’t post silly claims about calorie count or sodium content in the front of the labels, that only a careful observer would realize assumes consumption of a fraction of the product.
This article describes the FDA’s efforts to zero in on the problem. But it doesn’t mention what most of the world - except the US - does. They require every product to list nutritional impact per 100 grams. I used to think that is confusing because you don’t necessarily consume 100 grams of that product. But it creates a benchmark that is easy to compare. And it doesn’t have to exclude an additional column for nutritional facts per portion.
If you haven’t seen the documentary Food Inc. - you have to. Like Michael Pollan’s books, this movie will change the way you see food and the world.
If we as consumers and citizens don’t do something quickly to fight back against the food industrial complex, by voting with our dollars, by informing and educating others, and by advocating to the government for more transparency, freedom, and a level playing field for natural foods producers, then the epidemics of diabetes, obesity, environmental degradation, food contamination and inhumane treatment will threaten us further.
Some highlights:
Serious work ahead.
Ken Kunze, former CMO of Heineken and a very impressive guy, shared this very funny and effective guerrilla marketing effort by Coca-Cola.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has sent a report to the FDA charging several food and beverage manufacturers with mislabeling their products. CSPI also recommends reforming package labeling format, especially the nutrition information and ingredient lists.
A study recently found that children on Medicaid are given antipsychotic drugs at a rate 4 times higher than those on private health insurance.
The implications for health and justice are deep. Antipsychotic drugs are severely overprescribed - and their long-term damage to society has not yet been registered.
The article posits this trend among the poor may be related to short- sighted measures to "efficiently" control problem children.
A more serious and systemic problem is the abuse by the pharmaceutical industry of government programs - and their undue influence over certain segments of the medical community.
These are scary developments that seem to get scarier with time. A serious and systemic response is necessary.
While many of the choices on TIME Magazine’s Top 10 lists for 2009 were lame or uninspired, here are a few worthwhile picks:
MOST HILARIOUS VIDEO:
Bonnie Tyler spoof of 80s (Other viral videos: I had already noted great videos including of Susan Boyle, and there are other good ones like this wedding procession, the post-it film "deadline", the mock ad for Flutter that underlines the silliness of the world we live in, and the baby dancing that even my grandmother had forwarded me)
FUNNIEST AD:
Hulu
COOL AND DEEP:
The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.
Also Cool Scientific Discoveries:
Yesterday I tried Softsoap’s Pure Cashmere Hand soap. I was struck by the proposition that a soap could contain "cashmere extract" because a while back I had wondered what "cashmere" really was. Most consumers just know Cashmere sweaters as exceptionally soft but don’t know where "cashmere" comes from, so I guess the marketing team at Softsoap’s parent company, Colgate, figured that they would make things romantic with the cashmere association.
The trouble is, cashmere is the fur of a type of goat - the cashmere goat. Colgate tries to connect to this silly gimmick by using "hydrolyzed keratin" - a protein extract from the goat’s hair. This ingredient, besides being the least present in the formula (see label), has no discernible impact on the purported features of the product. It is just used for smoke and mirrors. Too bad that most consumers have not yet caught up with this deception - though I did find one colorful site that brought them to task on it.
![clip_image001[6]](http://blog.peaceworks.net/wp-content/uploads/ColgatesGoatSoap_5E5/clip_image0016.jpg)
You’d think Colgate would be a bit more responsible with its claims and advertising.
Then again, liquid soap is a modern invention that pollutes water at such greater levels than regular soap, for the sheer fact that it is used in much ampler and less efficient form than regular bars of soap. The same reason why companies created shower gels and liquid soaps - because they can command a higher price and accomplish more turns than using regular soap bars - is also the reason why consumers should avoid using such products, which harm the environment and are just wasteful.
