Tricky Food Labels

Should we be reading and trusting our food labels more often? How many times do you go to your grocery store and actually read the labels to see how much fat grams,total calories, cholesterol, sugar and additives the company has put inside. Even after it took a while to get the FDA to make this a mandate , many of us are still whimscally ignoring labels. But, that just may be what the food industry is hoping for.

In a morning talk show on NBC several prepared "diet meals" were investigated for their calorie amount and determine whether it was consistent with the actual amount in them by having them checked by a nutritionist.

Healthy Choice(HC), Lean Cuisine(LC),and Smart One(S1) were the primary meals that were focused on. What was found was shocking. First of all the GMA Grocery Manufacturing Association doesn't find it a problem for food makers to have great disparity in the amount of calories labelled on a box and the actual amounts inside them.The head of the GMA felt is was irrelevant essentially to the customer and that wide ranges of calories was OK.

If that wasn't enough that government agent that "protects" the citizens with discrepancies , the FDA, actually allows food companies to have a discepancy in calorie labels up to 20%!

First the good news. There were some meals that had less calories than that which was stated on the food lable.

Examples of this were :

1)HC Roast Beef Merlot it was actually 17% lower in fat calories than it's fat label

2)LC Primavera was 19% fewer calories than it's food label

3)LC Rose Marie actually had 60 % less fat than its package label

But, now for the bad news:

1)S.1. Shrimp Marino had 10 % more calories than its label

2) HC Lobster Cheese Ravioli had 17 % more fat than its label

3)LC Primavera was also higher in calories

4) S.1. sweet and sour chicken actually was 11 % more in total calories but , get this, it had 350 %(percent) more fat

Susan Roberts, a nutritionist at Tufts gave her opinion about this practice and felt that this may be the cause of how"sneaky" calories get into our diet and cause overweight and obesity and also when many of us are thinking our "diet" meal is helping us lose weight, it actually may be causing you to gain weight!

Latest studies show today that less calories particularly fat and that from red meat can extend both quality and the length of life by preventing heart disease, and cancer. Higher fiber diets in oats, bran, green leafy vegetables and fruits can combat cancer and diabetes.

Tomatoes have lycopene that helps men protect the prostate. Pomengranate and Grape Extract have antioxidants that can help fight against chronic disease and premature aging.Almonds and fish with more omega oil are considered smart foods that help the brain.Broccoli helps with reducing bladder cancer, watermelon helps lower blood pressure, papaya helps fight gall bladder disease because of it's high amount of vitamin C. Fermented soy may help fight against breast cancer and bone loss.

These choices along with exercise by simply walking can help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Dr. Marcus Wells is a previous NIH Clinical Associate at the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute. Dr. Wells served in the US Health & Human Services, US Public Health Service, US Commissioned Corp and holds a Master's degree from Emory University.

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