If you didn't read my previous post about Precision Nutrition, check it out HERE.
PN just posted another great entry to their blog titled Label Lies: Misleading Calorie Counts. As you've probably concluded by now, I'm not such a big fan of the food industry, and this revelation just adds fuel to the fire!
After a little background about what a calorie actually is, they get to the real heart of the blog post...restaurants and food manufacturers incorrectly label their products and meals! Specifically, products that are touted as "low calorie" are the real culprits here (as that is what was actually tested by the researchers).
Some of my favorite excerpts from the post:
On average the 10 frozen meals had 8% more calories than the amount given on the labels. This doesn’t seem too bad, unless you eat these meals regularly.
If you thought you were eating 2000 calories/day, but were actually eating 8% more (160 calories) because all your meals were frozen or prepared foods, then by the end of the week you would have an extra 1120 calories.
Hmmm…now you have a problem, because by the end of the year you will have an extra 58,240 calories, or over 7.55kg (16 pounds) of fat!
That statistic applies only to the frozen foods. I'm sure plenty of people eat frozen dinners on a regular basis, particularly the ones that they think are low in calories. Even worse, there are probably far more people who rely on restaurants for a fairly large percentage of their meals. Check out the stats on restaurant meals:
In this study restaurants underestimated the calories of their meals by an average of 18%!
The worst estimates were from Denny’s for their toast and grits. Dry white toast was 283 calories per slice instead of the 97 calories listed. Grits served with butter were also much higher in calories than reported by Denny’s (258 calories instead of the reported 86 calories).
Thus, if we do the same calculation as for the frozen food — i.e. if you think you’re eating 2000 calories a day, but are eating all your meals at these kinds of restaurants — you’ll be taking in 18% more than you realize, or 360 calories a day — 2520 a week, or 131,040 a year, for 37.44 additional pounds of fat.
The real unfortunate part about this is that people who are making a conscious effort to "watch what they eat" are the ones that are negatively effected.
Now for the most shocking part...where the federal government fits in:
This is the typical good news, bad news scenario. The good news is that there is some regulation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The bad news is that it only applies to packaged food. And there’s more bad news: for the FDA, an “acceptable underestimation” of calories is 20%.
Restaurants don’t have to follow any regulations, but frozen food manufacturers have to be within 20%. Really, 20%! That 250 calorie meal could be 300 calories and still be within regulations.
I'd be lying if I said I was surprised. I guess this just further reinforces the need for consumers to educate themselves first, and secondly to never believe the food industry or its regulators.
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