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How food manufacturers trick consumers with deceptive ingredients lists Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

The reality: ingredients lists are used by food manufacturers to deceive consumers and trick them into thinking products are healthier (or better quality) than they really are. This article explores the most common deceptions used by food manufacturers to trick consumers with food ingredients lists. It also contains useful tips for helping consumers read such labels with the proper skepticism. Deceiving consumers: Tricks of the food trade If the Nutrition Facts section on food packaging list all the substances that go into a food product, how can they deceive consumers?

Remember that ingredients lists don't have to list chemical contaminants. Foods can be contaminated with pesticides, solvents, acrylamides, PFOA, perchlorate (rocket fuel) and other toxic chemicals without needing to list them at all. The best way to minimize your ingestion of toxic chemicals is to buy organic, or go with fresh, minimally-processed foods. 5. Look for words like "sprouted" or "raw" to indicate higher-quality natural foods. Sprouted grains and seeds are far healthier than non-sprouted. Raw ingredients are generally healthier than processed or cooked.

Again, it's just another example of how food companies use Nutrition Facts and ingredients lists to deceive, not inform, consumers. Here are some additional tips for successfully decoding ingredients list labels: Tips for reading ingredients labels 1. Remember that ingredients are listed in order of their proportion in the product. This means the first 3 ingredients matter far more than anything else. The top 3 ingredients are what you're primarily eating. 2. If the ingredients list contains long, chemical-sounding words that you can't pronounce, avoid that item.

As a result, ingredients lists don't really list what's actually in the food, they only list what the manufacturer wants you to believe is in the food. This is by design, of course. Requirements for listing food ingredients were created by a joint effort between the government and private industry (food corporations). In the beginning, food corporations didn't want to be required to list any ingredients at all. They claimed the ingredients were "proprietary knowledge" and that listing them would destroy their business by disclosing their secret manufacturing recipes.

In foods, companies pad the ingredients lists with healthy-sounding berries, herbs or superfoods that are often only present in miniscule amounts. Having "spirulina" appear at the end of the ingredients list is practically meaningless. There's not enough spirulina in the food to have any real effect on your health. This trick is called "label padding" and it's commonly used by junk food manufacturers who want to jump on the health food bandwagon without actually producing healthy foods.

Pepsi admits Aquafina comes from tap water Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Over the last several decades, corporations have vigorously opposed truth in labeling laws and regulations, including those requiring the labeling of trans fatty acids, sodium content and even ingredients lists! (If the food corporations had their way, all ingredients would be considered "proprietary formulas" and not listed on the label at all.) This bottled water issue brings to light the apparent deceptive practices of some of the largest suppliers of bottled water products.

Grocery Warning: How to recognize and avoid the groceries that cause cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other common diseases Mike Adams See book keywords and concepts

Few restaurants have ingredients lists available for customers. To obtain these, you have to be a real pest, which usually ends up annoying the people you're dining with. • Even upscale restaurants depend heavily on MSG and chemical taste enhancers. Just because the menu prices are sky-high doesn't mean they prepare their foods with fresh ingredients. Why Chinese restaurants are actually the best place to avoid MSG Amazingly, I've found Chinese restaurants are the best places to eat if you want to avoid MSG, because they actually know what it is.

Living the Low Carb Life: Controlled Carbohydrate Eating for Long-Term Weight Loss Jonny Bowden, M.A., C.N.S. See book keywords and concepts

Vitamins and Supplements I once worked in a doctor's office that had the following sign posted: The top three things not to bargain shop for: Parachutes Scuba Equipment Vitamins All vitamin and supplements are not created equal. Two ingredients lists may look similar, but that does not mean they're of the same quality: both Mercedes and Hyundai have engines, but they are hardly the same animal.

Opinion: Ensure is primarily sugar water, marketed with misleading statements that deceive consumers Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

And they don't read ingredients lists, either. Products like Ensure or SlimFast seem to imply that they are serious products for optimum nutrition, but in fact, an honest analysis of these products reveals that they offer extremely poor nutrition and they probably do far more harm than good to people who choose to consume them on a regular basis, as any good nutritionist will tell you. Now for legal clarification, I'm not willing to directly state that Ensure causes diabetes or that Ensure causes weight gain or cancer or osteoporosis.

The New Optimum Nutrition Bible Patrick Holford See book keywords and concepts

No-Doz, Excedrin, Dexatrim) Chocolate Alcohol (glass of wine is 1; bottle of beer is 1; or 2 shots of spirits is 1) Added sugar (1 teaspoon/5 gm sugar contents on ingredients lists) Cigarettes Unit 2 cups 1 cup 1 cup 1 can 1 pill 50 gm 1 unit Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 teaspoon 1 cigarette ARE YOU DEPENDENT ON STIMULANTS? To find out if you are stimulant-dependent, complete the "stimulant inventory" below, for a week. Add up your total number of "units." The ideal is five or fewer per week.

So too are manufactured foods that contain hydrogenated fats, so check ingredients lists on labels carefully. I use pumpkin seed butter instead of butter or margarine as a spread. It tastes delicious. Frying, as mentioned earlier, is another way to damage otherwise healthy oils. The high temperature makes the oil oxidize so, instead of being good for you, it generates harmful free radicals in the body (explained fully in chapter 15). Frying is therefore best avoided as much as possible, as is any form of burning or browning fat.

Dangerous Grains: Why Gluten Cereal Grains May Be Hazardous To Your Health James Braly M.D. and Ron Hoggan M.A. See book keywords and concepts

Additives Developing the habit of relentlessly reading ingredients lists on labels is a critical part of successfully following a gluten-free diet. Rule of thumb: Any processed food is suspect.

The Complete Guide to Health and Nutrition Gary Null See book keywords and concepts

Look for it on potato chip ingredients lists, for example, and if you must eat potato chips, make your own.) Mayonnaise and margarine are two other highly processed foods. Fresh butter is far preferable from a health point of view. Never eat rancid oil—or oil that "keeps well" because of preservatives. Hydrogenation: Dispelling Some Myths If you read labels when you shop, you've seen the word "hy-drogenated" again and again—on everything from peanut butter to candy bars.

Nontoxic, Natural and Earthwise Debra Lynn Dadd See book keywords and concepts

Grooming_ Harmful ingredients: artificial colors, BHA/ BHT, fragrances (this is an estimation; there are no ingredients lists on animal grooming products). At the Store/By Mail Check your local natural-food store for grooming products for your pet, or order them by mail. Natural grooming products for pets Aubrey Organics Grooming Spray for Dogs (Aubrey Organics). For skin irritation between shampoos. Q ® Aubrey Organics, Humane Alternative Products, My Brother's Keeper. Color & Herbal Conditioning Shampoo (Color & Herbal Company). Aloe herbal shampoo for a shiny coat. Fresh herbal scent.

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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.