TRICKS ARE FOR KIDS

Nutritional labels are often misleading by design. Food manufacturers’ nutritional labels include specific product information to influence a consumer’s purchasing decision, and ultimately create a long-term craving for the product.

Some labels are designed to increase the number of servings consumed. Trix, a favorite breakfast cereal, is a packaged food I ate on occasion as a child. I enjoyed pouring milk into a large bowl and adding the cereal until my bowl overflowed. As I inhaled the sugary breakfast, I read the back of the box and completed whatever maze the General Mills’ marketers had cleverly designed. These silly games usually occupied my attention for a short 30 seconds. Then I proceeded to the side of the box and read the nutritional label.

The bottom half of the label states that one serving provides 25% of daily value for certain minerals and vitamins. I thought to myself, “I’m a growing boy, and I’m getting bullied by larger classmates, why would I want to consume only 25% of my day’s required nutrition? Why not consume 100% or more?” In a mere 30 seconds, I justified the consumption of three additional servings of a highly refined grain and sugar food product. Furthermore, television advertisements by food manufacturers, elementary school nutrition teachers, and cartoon rabbits had trained me and other young children to believe “Trixarefor kids” without explaining to us the potential long-term risks of cavity formation and other symptoms related to malnutrition.

Many nutritional labels on processed food produFcts are designed so consumers falsely believe they provide adequate nutritional value. No nutritional label exists on real, unprocessed, whole and unadulterated foods. Try to find a freshly picked tomato with a ‘trans fat free’ nutritional label. You won’t, because the farmers and you both know it hasn’t been processed. Only processed foods contain man-made ‘transfats.’

Many of us purchase fresh meats, vegetables, fruits, eggs and cheese from a local farmer’s market or health store because we are concerned with the nutritional content of these foods in their conventional form. How often do you request a nutritional label before buying a head of lettuce or a bunch of bananas? Did you read the nutritional label for the kale, carrots or Brussels sprouts on your recent grocery run? Have you ever seen the nutritional label for a tri-tip steak, salmon filet or chicken breast?

Most of us do not bother to look for the nutritional label when we purchase real and fresh whole food items. We intuitively know what real whole food is. Nutritional labels are merely selling tools for corporate food manufacturers to trick us (like kids) into justifying the purchase of processed food.