Beware of misleading food labels

It seems that every food product known to man, from artificial sweeteners to muffins to fruit leather, is suddenly claiming to contain one-third of your recommended daily intake of fiber.

This would be amazing if it were accurate but unfortunately it is a false claim allowed to be told because of loopholes in food labeling laws. The culprit ingredient is known as inulin, or chicory root extract, and it is by definition a fiber. It is also fairly sweet and lacks the consistency of real fibers' two characteristics that allow food manufacturers to show a huge amount of fiber on the label without changing the taste or texture of the product. What the food manufacturers aren't advertising on their labels? That inulin is not the kind of fiber that offers the benefits typically associated with real fiber intake, benefits so important to good health.

Although inulin may show health-promoting properties in certain individuals, food manufacturers are doing consumers an incredible disservice with this deceptive labeling. People who use these products are getting less fiber than ever while actually thinking they are meeting their RDA. Because there are no laws requiring the separation of inulin from other fibers on food labels, a product that touts nine grams of fiber may provide just two grams to a consumer unaware that seven of those nine grams are actually inulin.

This is why it is important to educate yourself and be your own advocate when it comes to your health. Food manufacturers will mislead you any way they can by using tactics such as this, including adding collagen and/or gelatin to protein bars to increase how much protein is stated on the label.

Proteins are measured by how bio-available they are; think of it as a grading system that measures how well your body can utilize the ingested protein. The scientist that came up with this gave egg protein a perfect score and assigned it with a biological value of 100. Collagen and gelatin rated in at zero. Your body cannot do anything with them yet the FDA still allows them to be included in the total protein content for various food products. Companies use them because their gooey texture, cheap cost, and lack of taste make them perfect for increasing protein content while keeping cost down.

One more trick you should be aware of is the renaming of unhealthy food additives with FDA- accepted synonyms. Examples of this include renaming MSG as hydrolyzed vegetable protein. It may also say hydrolyzed wheat/pea/soy/corn/etc. protein. And although crystalline fructose may sound nicer than high fructose corn syrup, it is actually worse for you.

The moral here is to read labels carefully and when there is something listed that you do not recognize, look it up. Your daily fiber should be coming from fruits, vegetables, and to a lesser extent whole or preferably sprouted grains, NOT from inulin.