New labelling on foods. Do you reconsider?

Archeron

I've noticed that more and more foods are featuring the labelling that tells you what percentage of a days calories/sugar etc are in a product. Have you found that this has any effect on whether or not you buy a product?

I'm not generally a fan of Coca Cola, but a cold can now and then is nice when you're parched. However, when I read the little label and seen one can contains 40% of your daily recommendation of sugar, I put it back and took a 7-up free instead.

Would this sway your decision on a product purchase?
Should I be shot for bring this up in this forum?

rubadub

It does to me. These junk food companies typically find a source of info with slightly higher levels than normal. e.g. find a decent book and it might say the same can has 50% of your sugar allowance.

I have been reading nutritional info on packs since I was 10. It amazes me how ignorant people are of what is in foods.

Skim milk has over half the sugar content that coke does (albeit "better sugar"). Most fruit juices have hte same sugar levels as coke. Lilt has half hte sugar coke does. But I know people who dranking thinking it was basically calorie free, even though it has around the same calories as coke glass for glass.

Archeron

I must admit to have being quite ignorant to looking at food contents myself through time, but a family member is diabetic now, so when shopping for her, I made sure to check the details, and was shocked at a lot of what I found.

Now this new labelling system puts it much more obviously. Some ways its good (like a bag of sweets being only 200ish cal's, I would have thought more). I'm glad to see the packages marked like that now, but I wonder if this forums frequent sugar-munchers would now take a second thought about their sweety habits now that the levels of evil are so blatantly in your face.
My sister in law checked the contents of a box of those French Fancy things (you know the little pink and yellow sugar squares) and she nearly fell off her chair. Dont know quite what she was expecting though, I'd say even looking at those would cause your teeth to loosen.

rubadub

Be VERY careful of "portion sizes" listed on products. The bowl of cereal a person pours and that you see on the ads is way bigger than the stated one. Sometimes you can cop this as it might say "this box contains 30 servings", and you cop on that you go through it in a week!

Weightwatchers meals are demons for this, the portions they quote usually wouldnt do a kid. Marketers are aware people are on a health buzz, and blindly look at all these figures and so skew them to make them seem low calorie.

Ads for milk will say "only 4% fat", -yeah but I used to drink ~1kilo a day, i.e. a litre. Then they will say crisps "only contain Xgrams of fat, and Xgrams of salt", -yeah but the weight of a bag is small, so the actual % fat/salt is still relatively huge.

Also look at the ingredients listings, many "low calorie" foods are simply relativelt low in weight compared to similar products at the same price. e.g. wispa, malteasers, aero, creme egg are all low weight and the same price as other bars. Many "low fat" sauces are just watered down with added starch and other crap, it is better to use the real sauce and water it down directly, cheaper too. Just get snack size snickers etc, not the minis, the step up size, it is the same weight as your "airy bars" and costs less.

Archeron

rubadub wrote: »

Be VERY careful of "portion sizes" listed on products. The bowl of cereal a person pours and that you see on the ads is way bigger than the stated one. Sometimes you can cop this as it might say "this box contains 30 servings", and you cop on that you go through it in a week!ag is small, so the actual % fat/salt is still relatively huge.

Thats a very good point and worthy of a thread of its own. I used to wonder when I ate a 500g box of cornflakes in a week if I was just some hungry beast, but in fairness I am 6 foot 2, so I dont think 30g of cereal will fulfill me to the point I'd be acting were I in an ad for that product.
I'm glad now though that this marking of products is there, as I can make better choices of what I'm buying as I do have a fecker of a sweet tooth.
Perhaps as a result I'll be slightly less fat that I am now, LOL.

CombatCow

I hate it when they have the amount of Kcals listed, and dosent look so bad...until you read the small print "per 1/3 serving" ,drives me mad!


CC

The Real B-man

CombatCow wrote: »

I hate it when they have the amount of Kcals listed, and dosent look so bad...until you read the small print "per 1/3 serving" ,drives me mad!


CC

yeah that annoys the hell outta me! :mad:

Malteaser!

The new labels make me feel bad for about a second then I remember how much I love whatever it is I'm buying and get it anyway.

EamonnKeane

And Coke bottles say "per 250ml serving", as if everyone drinks half the bottle and puts the rest in the fridge for tomorrow