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A new poll reveals that 80% of Americans say that they read nutritional labels when they purchase food, but half of those people buy the food no matter what the label says. So, why do they bother reading a label when it's not going to influence their decision to purchase? "I don't know, force of habit" was one woman's response.
This is surprising because, in the past, other studies have indicated that consumers change their buying habits when confronted with an unhealthy food label.
Of those who do check the labels, they look for things like calories and trans-fats, but not necessarily for overall nutrition. Other things that the survey found are the women are most likely to read a nutrition label, followed by men and then single men, and that women are more likely to place importance on what they read there.
It sounds as though people simply don't know what they're "supposed" to be reading, even though there is no right answer on the label. The information for all the food eaten during the day is what should be taken into account, not just for one product.
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7-02-2006 @7:31PM cornelia said... No wonder people ignore them -- nutrition labels can be very misleading since they don't indicate whether the cholesterol, for example, is from sugar, white flour, high fructose corn syrup or whole grains. A nutrition label might indicate a low percentage of fat, but doesn't indicate if the fat is bad stuff like vegetable oils (often rancid, processed with nasty chemicals, and with high residues of pesticides, or made from a genetically modified product.
Skip the nutrition label and go straight for the ingredient list. That's the crucial information you need to make a decision on. If there are any ingredients you don't know what are (chemical names), lots of sugars under all sorts of names (fructose, sucrose, sugar, HFCS), weasel words for MSG (natural flavors, soy isolates, etc.) or even PARTIALLY hydrogenated anything -- slowly, carefully, put the product back on the shelf, and congratulate yourself profusely for not succumbing to big food processors' shenanigans to keep you unhealthy and unable to appreciate what real food tastes like and does for your body.
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7-02-2006 @8:07PM Dr. Electro said... When we go shopping for food, we read the nutritional label as a general guide. When we are interested in trying a product we read the ingredient list for accuracy. We have to be careful what we eat. I'm diabetic and my wife is hypoglycemic, celiac and allergic to peanuts and tomatoes. We absolutely can not go to Wal-Mart and grab any can of junk off the shelf and blithely gobble it down.
In the end, we mostly buy fresh stuff that we are relatively sure we can trust, add ingredients that won't harm us and cook from scratch. I love to cook, she does not. That works out just fine and we really do eat healthier for it.
Note to young, healthy people with active lifestyles: Just because it doesn't kill you in one sitting now doesn't mean it won't jump up and bite you in the vital organs later in life. Eat healthy while you are young and make it a life long habit. You don't deserve to die young.
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7-02-2006 @10:26PM kaitlin said... How about not being so obsessive about labels and practice moderation......what is the point of eating healthy to live longer if you can't enjoy life and food? I hate the people who think of junk food as poison and that it is a sin to eat it ONCE IN A WHILE.
Those are what you call nutritional retards.
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7-03-2006 @4:45AM Suzanne Norton said... What I like is that everybody is an 'expert' and a moron at the same time when it comes to actually knowing whether or not a food substance can do anything at all in the human body or what the REAL consequences are regarding any of it. The human bodys non-conscious autopeoetic systems run synergistcally unique to each and every individual and one person can eat poison and thrive while another falls over dead from just being around rotten grapes. Other than immediate acting toxins with demonstrable damage apparent in the human body, a human being can eat any food whatever and the body's non-conscious system will assimilate it in manner totally irreverent to all the 'opinions', 'statistics', 'scientific studies', 'government health agencies findings', or their ridiculous attempts to 'protect' people from them selves. It isn't what is eaten so much as it is how much, when , and in what manner what is eaten that will really matter in the long run. Some day there will be a 'daily gruel' consisting of certain items that will be all a human being will need to consume to live indefinitely. Meantime there is a vast amount of entertainment in watching all the health nuts chase their own tails with some of the 'advise' and 'cautions' they spout forth so freely, considering none of them have yet to live long enough to KNOW anything about health whatever.
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7-03-2006 @5:06AM alex said... to #3:
you may like enjoying your life with a box of twinkies
but im more inclined to eat some stuff that tastes good and is actually healthy
look at that, best of both worlds
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7-03-2006 @6:04AM Heather said... #3, I grew up on highly processed foods. My mother neither had the the time nor the inclination to cook. Since growing up and moving out I have discovered a world of flavor that is miles apart from the overprocessed, sodium laden, chemical laced, preserved-to-stay-fresh junk of my youth.
I have learned that truly fresh and healthy food has a dimension all its own that I had never experienced before. Fruits and vegetables are the most obvious examples. There is nothing like a fresh ear of corn roasted on a grill; heck, use some real butter, a little kosher salt, and cracked pepper. Now, compare that with a can of corn nuked for two minutes.
It takes a little longer, but I enjoy my food a lot more. Of course, this doesn't mean I don't enjoy chowing down on things like Cheez-Its every now and then, things like that just aren't a part of my everday diet.
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7-03-2006 @9:08AM mella said... Cornelia, I'm not sure if it's a typo or a mistaken belief, but I believe you meant to say carbohydrates rather than cholesterol. Cholesterol is contained only in animal products and has nothing to do with sugar vs. corn syrup or white flour vs. whole grains.
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