These labels are confusing, misleading and useless (for people, I suppose they are quite useful for moving product).
1. The % differ from those on the back of the box. This is due to using ‰ RDA on front and actual % on back.
2. They are based on recommended portion size. Which is set by the manufacturer, and often differs between brands of the same food. So you get health brands like WW that can claim to be healthy by simply halving the size of the product (and increasing the price, to help you limit your consumption ;). This reminds me of the Plimsol load line on ships*.
3. They include water content. So a can of cola is only 30‰ sugar? But your body diseperates the water out quickly. What matters is the solid food. So cola should be labeled more like ~95 sugar, to be more accurate on the health effects.
Dietary advice and regulations are garbage. Future generations will look at this and think we where completely backwards. I am sure they will wonder how we ever survived.
* Sam Plimsol campaigned, in the 19th century, for all ships to have a load line painted on the hull, below which no ship could load. This was to prevent greedy owners sending ships out dangerously overloaded. We still use the Plimsol line today. The catch? Only the owner decides where to paint the line.
I guess that depends on you're definition of food. If you accept the makers of "food products" as food, then there's definitely bad food. If you do not accept that "food product" is food, then I'd agree!
1. The % differ from those on the back of the box. This is due to using ‰ RDA on front and actual % on back.
2. They are based on recommended portion size. Which is set by the manufacturer, and often differs between brands of the same food. So you get health brands like WW that can claim to be healthy by simply halving the size of the product (and increasing the price, to help you limit your consumption ;). This reminds me of the Plimsol load line on ships*.
3. They include water content. So a can of cola is only 30‰ sugar? But your body diseperates the water out quickly. What matters is the solid food. So cola should be labeled more like ~95 sugar, to be more accurate on the health effects.
Dietary advice and regulations are garbage. Future generations will look at this and think we where completely backwards. I am sure they will wonder how we ever survived.
* Sam Plimsol campaigned, in the 19th century, for all ships to have a load line painted on the hull, below which no ship could load. This was to prevent greedy owners sending ships out dangerously overloaded. We still use the Plimsol line today. The catch? Only the owner decides where to paint the line.