The surprising secret that may be keeping you fat
By Crazy Legs on Aug 20, 2009 with Comments 6
~by Melanie
Here’s some food for thought
We recently interviewed Hungry Girl Lisa Lillien via Skype and ran the video in two parts because the entire thing was over 11 minutes long. If you didn’t see it, you can watch part one here, and part two here.
This post, however, is not about the yogurt she was there to plug. Nope, we want to talk to you about calories.
Are you on a diet? Are you counting calories? Do you read the labels on the packaged food products you buy? If you do, do you think you’re being good?
Did you catch Lisa’s comments on food labeling? No matter how “good” you think you’re being, you may actually be consuming more calories than you think you are.
Yup, you read that right.
In fact, you might be consuming up to 20% more calories than you think.
Here’s a recap, because it’s a bit difficult to hear her:
First, Lisa’s experience from getting products independently tested at labs revealed that sometimes companies just aren’t being honest about their labeling. As Lisa puts it, a “diet” product could be 300 calories instead of the 90 that’s on the label. And how would we know? We think that because the FDA has rules that we’re protected but the fact is that Lisa found through independent testing that some nutritional labels were just plain wrong.
Would that be out-and-out dishonesty or just an honest mistake? It doesn’t matter because your body can’t tell the difference.
An extra 100 calories by mistake is the same as 100 extra calories by deception.
Second, Lisa blew us away by telling us that even companies that ARE honest (and let’s be optimistic and assume most of them are honest) they STILL might be feeding us more calories than we bargained for.
Huh? Why?
Lisa says that companies are allowed up to 20% leeway on their caloric numbers by the FDA. So that would mean that a product might say it has 100 calories, while it could actually have 120. And the FDA approves it!
Is this true? You bet! Check it out for yourself – we researched her claims and we’ve posted an excerpt from the FDA below. You can find the full FDA document on compliance here.
The bottom line
Add up the number of packaged products you consume over a week. A month. What about over a year? Add a potential 20% more calories to your diet from the packaged foods you eat.
That could be a HUGE difference in your waistline!
Did you know that there could be up to 20% more calories than stated on the label? Neither did we. No wonder Lisa is lobbying for changes to the food labeling laws. And Girlgetstrong is right beside her.
Don’t be smug, Canada
Oh, and us Canadians have no reason to be smug either. We have the same tolerance for error – 20%. So much for Canada’s reputation as having stricter labelling laws. Don’t take our word for it, read the government data. If you are a Canadian reader, you can find out more about labelling on the Canadian Food Inspection Website.
You’ll find the full document on the Canadian labelling error tolerances here or see our excerpt below.
Food for thought? We’ll say.
Filed Under: Weight loss
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Thanks for the article – and especially the links. So many times people just repeat what they hear. Well researched, girls!
It actually goes both ways. Foods can also be 20% lower in calories, fat, etc. than stated (leeway is allowed due to difficulty in having the kind of accuracy people think exists in food analysis). In my experience working with food companies, the larger ones are more likely to have accurate info because they use a lab to test the food, rather than database analysis. But batches often are slightly different, especially in sodium content, so the numbers in reality are not going to be exactly the same with each batch. And testing every single batch and printing new labels for variations would be economically impossible (that $2 bag of chips would become $10).
Small companies that use database analysis (software), are more likely to have inaccurate info, especially if they do the work themselves rather than having a nutrition labeling professional do it. And some will try to fudge the numbers, but in most cases it’s simply human error, lack of consistency between original recipe and the scale-up quantities for mass production, and/or lack of knowledge on the part of the person doing the analysis.
Thanks Carol – you are absolutely right. Lisa Lillien also said that larger companies, in her experience, tended to be closer to the stated numbers and that she believed it was due to the money they spend on lab testing. Her point on the large inaccuracies was that she believes they tend to be small mom-and-pop-type companies that aren’t *trying* to be dishonest, but that don’t have the money to spend on testing. Fair enough. But the fact is, that in her example of a company-claimed 90 calorie “diet” cookie that turns out to be 300 calories, placing blame is less important than the simple awareness on the part of the consumer that they may be getting more calories than they think.
Second, absolutely as Carol says, food companies COULD be 20% under. But the chances of that? In the race to have the best tasting, lowest (stated) calorie treats, it is not likely that the numbers are going to come in UNDER the stated number. As a matter of fact, in our discussions with a food industry source, companies are quite aware of the leeway afforded and some take full advantage. And it’s not illegal, it’s allowed. And that’s fine. But we should know about it when we make our buying decisions. And that’s where Girlgetstrong feels strongly: open and honest communication of the facts on the label. If there is the potential for a difference, just state it. People can make up their own minds.
I guess the biggest point is this: as consumers, we need to be aware. There needs to be transparency. And if there is a chance that a product that I’m buying has up to 20% MORE calories than stated, we should all know that, right? Because for people counting every last calorie, this is not just an “error tolerance”, it’s the difference between losing weight – or not. It can be very discouraging and debilitating to one’s self confidence to think you are doing everything right, but not see a difference on the scale or on your body shape, when you are trying so hard.
Thanks for some great thoughtful insight, Carol! Talking about this issue is the best way to educate people. We sure appreciate the time you took to add your comment
[...] “The Surprising Secret About Packaged Foods that May be Keeping You Fat” (8/21/09) here — Say what?! Read this one my friends. Apparently the FDA gives companies quite a bit of [...]
Interesting. Hopefully the number of products that are mislabeled are few. I wonder how many companies take advantage of the rule on purpose.
Holy crow! I did NOT know that. That totally sucks.
Going to adjust my my cals now. Thx for sharing.