It’s almost fashionable to “eat healthy” these days. Pretty much any food in the supermarket now seems to have a claim to health and really how could you go wrong if you eat so-called “natural”, “whole grains” and “fat free” stuff all day? Well …….
The Wall Street Journal does some digging of its own and finds that most of the stuff that is claimed to be natural or “free” of bad stuff is anything but. “The Fine Print: What’s Really in a Lot of ‘Healthy’ Foods” investigates the tall claims on packaged foods and the results are pretty eye-opening.
Here are some of the most glaring violations of consumers’ trust:
- Chicken that is plumped by stuffing it with salt and water and then some “carageenan” that holds all that salt and water in! While salt and water are not naturally found in a chicken, they are still “natural” products themselves so they are allowed to call the chicken package “All Natural”. Brilliant!
- Using sorbitol instead of natural sweeteners actually makes things much worse for those sensitive to it leading to things like diarrhea and stomach pains.
- Trans fat – that age old enemy can still be added in quantities up to .49g and the package can still claim “No Trans Fat”! Must be nice to round down like that!
Read the entire article to learn how to protect yourself from wily food-marketers and stay one-step ahead of them.
[Via The Consumerist]
