Labeling on foods can often be misleading, vague, or complicated for the uninformed. I feel that this is a way that food companies can be dishonest by perhaps changing the serving size to be half the portion, making it seem that the fat content is half as much. Food labeling can be like a shell game where if you don’t pay attention to the wording and amounts, it is easy to believe whatever the food companies wish one to believe in order to purchase their products.
It appears to me that the US government (FDA) that regulates the food companies, have more rights than the consumers buying their products. Unless one becomes well versed in the product labeling, which most people are not in my opinion, it is very easy to think that we are purchasing and ultimately consuming healthy food products where in reality we are not.
I am in favor of total transparency on food labeling, as to what the nutritional values are, what actual ingredients are included naturally and what is chemically added in the process of preparing for resale. Then let the consumer decide for themselves if they want to purchase a product that is loaded with whatever additives or preservatives. There is a reason why the shelf life for some processed foods is literally years. Why would I think otherwise that these same chemicals would not end up “preserving” something within my body that should not be preserved?
I have a relative who is a food chemist. Years back he shared with me that one of the most common food colorings, called carmine is a natural red dye also labeled as cochineal extract, E120 or natural red 4, that comes from the female cochineal bug. Even if crushed bugs are not toxic, I think consumers should be able to find this fact more easily than having to research every ingredient for alternative names.
I read food labels constantly when I shop. I choose to monitor how much sodium and other additives are in foods that I purchase and prepare. Anything frozen, processed, prepared in advance or in a can are often the worst for us as they are at least loaded with salt as a natural preservative and often other chemicals to add shelf life. I have dabbled in the organic food labels also. These can be misleading also as there are various classifications for what can be considered as organic. One really has to take the self-responsibility to pursue the due diligence if one wants to better manage what they consume.
References:
https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-science/carmine.htm
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means?page=1
I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises
Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo
Jim Moltzan
407-234-0119
www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan
United Martial Arts Association 