Food labels


Michael Stuart Kelly

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I am one of those irritating readers of food lables when I buy food in a supermarket. Kat and I get in a hurry, but there I am looking at the ingredients. Or right before Kat or one of the kids chomp into a luscious bite of a mouthwatering snack, I ask the spoiler question, "Do you want to know what is in that?" Then I read a list off the package that sounds like the inventory for a chemical laboratory.

I haven't done that for a while because I find myself increasingly wimping out. The USA diet is an orgy of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and other flavor enhancers and the truth is that all this poison tastes damn fine. I admit it. I am a fool for pleasure. I am catching myself more often ignoring the "high fructose corn syrup" warning and digging in. (All right, it's not a warning, but it should be for the damage this stuff inflicts.)

It is time to rally once again and remember that what I eat has a long road ahead way after the taste has been forgotten. Where that road leads is often not good for my body. Fortunately I just came across an article that nudged me.

I have suffered from not knowing much about what I read on food labels. My gut instinct has been telling me that some of the information is really good but a lot of it is misleading. Finally here is a bit of information on where some of the bodies are buried and how they are covered up on the labels in the food we buy.

How Food Manufacturers are Tricking Gullible Consumers Under The Approval of The FDA

by Ryan

Diethack

Abridged from the article:

Reading the labels can be tricky, so here are the six top nutrition label "catches" to watch out for on your next trip to the grocery store.

Serving Size.

Many processed foods that are packaged as a single serving actually contain two or more servings.

. . .

Exempt Ingredients.

... ingredients that constitute less than 2 percent can be listed in any order after the heading "contains less than 2% of the following."

Other ingredients called "incidental additives" do not have to be listed on labels...

Natural and artificial flavors are also often grouped together under one name, and manufacturers aren't required to disclose what "artificial flavors" really means.

. . .

All Natural.

Food products that claim to be all natural may in fact include unnatural ingredients.

Free From ...

The FDA allows food manufacturers to round to zero any ingredient that accounts for less than 0.5 grams per serving. So while a product may claim to be "gluten-free" or "alcohol-free," it can legally contain up to 0.5 grams per serving...

Case in point, many food products that claim to have no dangerous trans fats list partially hydrogenated oil in their ingredients label. Partially hydrogenated oil creates trans fats, so these labels may be taking advantage of the rounding to zero option.

. . .

Unfamiliar Terms for Unsavory Ingredients.

Food manufacturers are known to use "clean labels," in which they hide ingredients they know consumers would rather not have in their foods under names they won't recognize.

For instance, if you're trying to avoid MSG, you need to look for all of the following terms, as they all contain MSG:

  • Autolyzed yeast
  • Calcium caseinate
  • Gelatin
  • Glutamate
  • Glutamic acid
  • Hydrolyzed protein
  • Monopotassium glutamate
  • Monosodium glutamate
  • Sodium caseinate
  • Textured protein
  • Yeast extract
  • Yeast food
  • Yeast Nutrient

Misleading Ingredient Claims.

Sometimes, foods that claim to include healthy ingredients actually don't contain them, or only contain them in miniscule amounts. Common offenders are blueberry waffles with no blueberries and strawberry yogurt with no strawberries.

That helps some.

Michael

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Thanks, its always good to know how much business can get away with.

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Edited by Mike11
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Mike11,

LOL...

All right. Objectivists are supposed to be pro-business to the detriment of all else, but I draw the line at what goes into my body. As the saying goes, knowledge is power and I want to know what I am swallowing since it usually does not come back out in the same form.

I left the blessed urge to remain ignorant about these matters behind when I gave up hard drugs. I admit, back then I didn't care at all. So long as there was enough of the right stuff in it to get me high, I would CONSUME!

:)

After living in another culture where the issue of lying is treated differently (not better, just differently), I sometimes get irritated with the USA practice of constantly stretching or cloaking the truth to make getting hooked and/or trapped look like freedom and/or wisdom. Everybody does it so much I see it as a cultural practice.

Sleaze is king—and a benevolent ruler at that.

btw - Please do not take my post as an endorsement of FDA regulation. On the contrary, I think the practice of stretching/cloaking the truth the way it has evolved on food labels actually grants a big honking sanction to the correctness of the FDA's powers. So I doubly do not like the practice of stretch/cloak deception on food labels.

Michael

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Mike11,

LOL...

All right. Objectivists are supposed to be pro-business to the detriment of all else, but I draw the line at what goes into my body. As the saying goes, knowledge is power and I want to know what I am swallowing since it usually does not come back out in the same form.

.......

.......

.......

Michael

Objectivists, mainly of the ARI stripe, have this thing of equating "Business" with Love, Truth, Honor, Perfection etc. Most modern businesses are not honest and spend trillions in an advertising industry designed to deceive. There is nothing anti-objectivist in calling BS to most of modern "Capitalism", in that respect.

As for the FDA...?

Doesn't Someone have to provide some degree of protection for the consumer?

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As for the FDA...?

Doesn't Someone have to provide some degree of protection for the consumer?

Mike11,

I fully agree, but how it is done by the FDA is not... er... the ideal. :)

There is no reason a consumer should have to run the risk of undoable damage to his body because he bought one thing as labeled and got another. There is no way to eliminate the risk altogether, but there are ways to diminish it and I am in favor of doing so. I am not sure government regulation is the way since it almost never works.

But I see no reason for the need of people dying first before we can act if such deaths can be avoided. (Ditto for maiming and mutilation.) Any good capitalist knows about risk management and preventive measures. All businesses I know of scream to the high heavens for government interference when they have been duped and damaged. Why shouldn't an individual?

The fact is that I don't have a good answer for how this should or could be managed right now. All I am doing for the present is trying to keep alert and spreading knowledge.

Michael

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  • 4 years later...

I am one of those irritating readers of food lables when I buy food in a supermarket. Kat and I get in a hurry, but there I am looking at the ingredients. Or right before Kat or one of the kids chomp into a luscious bite of a mouthwatering snack, I ask the spoiler question, "Do you want to know what is in that?" Then I read a list off the package that sounds like the inventory for a chemical laboratory.

I haven't done that for a while because I find myself increasingly wimping out. The USA diet is an orgy of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and other flavor enhancers and the truth is that all this poison tastes damn fine. I admit it. I am a fool for pleasure. I am catching myself more often ignoring the "high fructose corn syrup" warning and digging in. (All right, it's not a warning, but it should be for the damage this stuff inflicts.)

It is time to rally once again and remember that what I eat has a long road ahead way after the taste has been forgotten. Where that road leads is often not good for my body. Fortunately I just came across an article that nudged me.

I have suffered from not knowing much about what I read on food labels. My gut instinct has been telling me that some of the information is really good but a lot of it is misleading. Finally here is a bit of information on where some of the bodies are buried and how they are covered up on the labels in the food we buy.

How Food Manufacturers are Tricking Gullible Consumers Under The Approval of The FDA

by Ryan

Diethack

Abridged from the article:

Reading the labels can be tricky, so here are the six top nutrition label "catches" to watch out for on your next trip to the grocery store.

Serving Size.

Many processed foods that are packaged as a single serving actually contain two or more servings.

. . .

Exempt Ingredients.

... ingredients that constitute less than 2 percent can be listed in any order after the heading "contains less than 2% of the following."

Other ingredients called "incidental additives" do not have to be listed on labels...

Natural and artificial flavors are also often grouped together under one name, and manufacturers aren't required to disclose what "artificial flavors" really means.

. . .

All Natural.

Food products that claim to be all natural may in fact include unnatural ingredients.

Free From ...

The FDA allows food manufacturers to round to zero any ingredient that accounts for less than 0.5 grams per serving. So while a product may claim to be "gluten-free" or "alcohol-free," it can legally contain up to 0.5 grams per serving...

Case in point, many food products that claim to have no dangerous trans fats list partially hydrogenated oil in their ingredients label. Partially hydrogenated oil creates trans fats, so these labels may be taking advantage of the rounding to zero option.

. . .

Unfamiliar Terms for Unsavory Ingredients.

Food manufacturers are known to use "clean labels," in which they hide ingredients they know consumers would rather not have in their foods under names they won't recognize.

For instance, if you're trying to avoid MSG, you need to look for all of the following terms, as they all contain MSG:

  • Autolyzed yeast
  • Calcium caseinate
  • Gelatin
  • Glutamate
  • Glutamic acid
  • Hydrolyzed protein
  • Monopotassium glutamate
  • Monosodium glutamate
  • Sodium caseinate
  • Textured protein
  • Yeast extract
  • Yeast food
  • Yeast Nutrient

Misleading Ingredient Claims.

Sometimes, foods that claim to include healthy ingredients actually don't contain them, or only contain them in miniscule amounts. Common offenders are blueberry waffles with no blueberries and strawberry yogurt with no strawberries.

That helps some.

Michael

BTW, the list of items that may contain MSG is longer than that, at least 40.

But no matter. The FDA (Fraud and Deception Administration) says it's safe. Rational people such as Objectivists trust the FDA and all government organizations.

Besides, on philosophical grounds, what you put into your body is of no relevance to your health.

And it wouldn't matter anyway, because no matter how healthy you are, you still die.

I, being irrational, hold to the view that whatever the Fraud and Deception Administration approves is bad. The day they approve tomatoes and broccoli and beets is the day I will quit those things.

I seldom eat anything that has or needs a label. I have a grinder (Omega 8003 juicer). I get the juice and the pulp together so I call it a grinder instead of a juicer. I run a bunch of foods thru it (lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, beets, cauliflower, pumpkin seeds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, etc.) Then I add a heavy amount of turmeric powder for the curcumin, and I add some cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for the curcumin. Finally I run some distilled water, made with my distiller, thru the grinder and into the mix; that cleans the grinder and adds water to the mix. Then I have me a meal.

I have a spinal cord tumor in the neck; it causes weakness neck down. Surgery was rejected because it was too dangerous. According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, putting MSG on a tumor is like putting gasoline on a fire. Obviously I don't want to put gasoline on the tumor that is causing me to be paralyzed neck down. Being paralyzed neck down is not a good way to be; think of Stephen Hawking, even tho his condition is caused by ALS instead of a tumor. I am paranoid about MSG. All food is guilty until proved innocent. It has MSG in it unless I know it does not. In the case of food that comes from a restaurant or a cook, any evidence that it is innocent is ruled out of order. I trust only myself. Everything I eat, I want to know what is in it.

Broccoli and cauliflower have an anti-tumor substance called indole-3-carbinol. Tomato has lycopene, which has anti-tumor value. Beets have betacyanin, which has anti-tumor value. Brazil nuts are extremely high in selenium, which has anti-tumor value; and deficiency of selenium can cause tumors. The curcumin in turmeric powder is enormously powerful according to Dr. Blaylock, and has anti-tumor value. In order for the curcumin to be used, it needs oil, hence the olive oil.

Things work together in a synergistic way. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. According to Dr. Blaylock, in anti-oxidant math (and I assume flavonoid math and phytochemical math and nutrient math in general), 2 + 2 is not 4 but 12 or 20. This is why I try to mix as many anti-tumor things in one meal as possible, and in my diet.

In one study, there were 3 cases, 1st case the mice ate a diet of 10% tomato, 2nd case 10% broccoli, 3rd case 5% tomato and 5% broccoli. The strongest anti-tumor effect was in the 3rd case. This is what I call synergy. I try to maximize the synergy.

Sometimes instead of the veggy mix meal, I eat a berry meal, loaded with anti-tumor flavonoids.

In the year 2000, my rate of deterioration was rapid. Over the years, my rate of deterioration slowed down. Now, as near as I can figure, it is stopped. I hope. In some ways, unrelated to the spinal cord tumor, my health improved.

In April 2009, a tumor that I had for 9+ years disappeared in a few days when I didn't have an opportunity to eat for few days. I didn't plan that fast, but the elevator wasn't working and therefore I was stranded and couldn't get food.

Read this chapter by Shelton.

autolysis of tumors

I didn't give a rat's ass about that tumor, but I got the idea that maybe the same thing could happen to the spinal cord tumor.

I did a few more fasts, usually semi-voluntarily when the elevator wasn't working. Nothing more happened other than my body got more adapted to fasting. The extreme weakness that is supposed to happen on the 4th day no longer happens, provided I sleep lots and keep warm. Hunger is mild to almost absent the 1st day, totally absent the 2nd day and thereafter, again provided I sleep lots and keep warm.

BTW, the reason for the distilled water instead of tap water is that during a fast, tap water had a very bad taste, almost undrinkable. I figured anything that tastes that bad is probably bad. During a fast, the body tends to get sensitive to things; for example smokers at some stage of a fast tend to get sensitive to tobacco like a nonsmoker.

Last summer (2011) I seemed briefly to get better. If I can figure out what I was doing right and do it better, I might yet beat the spinal cord tumor. In any case there is no such thing as giving up. Maybe I will die in battle like a Klingon warrior. Whatever. If I succeed, I figure I will have bragging rights because 2 Medical Deities (MDs) told me it can't be done.

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  • 1 year later...

This video seems relevant to the original topic of this thread. And this time it's not from Dr. Russell Blaylock.

My main thing about glutamate is that putting it on a tumor is like putting gasoline on a fire. (This does not imply that glutamate causes the tumor, nor that it does not.) This fact is of some importance to me because I have a spinal cord tumor (found by MRI) that is making me paralyzed neck down. So far as I know it has not grown any in the last few years. I will be damned if I am going to put glutamate on it and make it grow. Anyone who wants me to do that is an enemy, literally.

In addition to that, I believe glutamate tends to defeat the proper function of the sense of taste. You probably could make dogshit taste good if you put enough glutamate on it. I hold to the theory that the sense of taste is usually at least a half ass reasonable guide to what is good and what is bad nutritionwise and healthwise when it is not defeated by the black art of making food taste better than it deserves to taste.

I have 2 rules about restaurants. Rule 1 is all restaurants are guilty until proved innocent. Rule 2 is any evidence that they are innocent is out of order. I am the Supreme Judge in this matter in my life and there is no appeal to a higher court.

You will say I am paranoid. I follow the rule: only the paranoid survive.

http://youtu.be/MzjOY_kHcr4

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