The Deception of Processed Food

The FDA posted a letter to their website yesterday (04/14/2015) declaring the packaging for Kind bars are misleading and need to be changed. The packaging for these bars claim that they are healthy and use a "+" sign for the names of certain bars.

Unfortunately, the nutritional content of four of types of Kind bars do not stand up to the claims made by their packaging. According the FDA, food cannot be considered healthy unless it has less than 15% of calories from saturated fat. This is violated by  Kind Fruit & Nut Almond & Apricot, Kind Fruit & Nut Almond & Coconut, Kind Plus Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein, and Kind Plus Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew + Antioxidants, all of which contain 2.5 grams of saturated fat, which exceed the percentage of calories from saturated fat. Furthermore, the FDA does not support the claim that these bars are rich in protein or antioxidants, let alone the use of the "+" on the packaging. Using this sign suggests that the bars contain at least 10 percent more of the daily recommended intake for vitamins and minerals as compared to an appropriate reference food, or that the food is fortified with vitamins and nutrients in accordance with certain FDA policies.

What this really brings up, though, is how oblivious we are as consumers when it comes to processed, packaged food. For the most part, unless you see a nutritionist or study nutrition, it is easy to ignore that handy nutrition fact label and just believe whatever claims a company makes on the front of the packaging. As more companies have made the move to put nutrition labels on the front of the product, they're still giving you the bare minimum (and can you blame them?) The problem is that every time we as consumers become hip to how food is packaged, the very smart marketing teams hired by these ridiculously large companies still find ways to sneak unnecessary sugar and fat into their foods without the majority being aware of it. Think about it...how many people fell victim to the "all-natural" scheme from a few years ago? Sure, your chips are just made of potato, oil, and salt, but it's still high in fat and sodium.

Really, the only way to avoid falling victim to these schemes is to give up processed food altogether. I know people who do this, and more power to them. I'll be honest, I am not one of these people. The difference is that I'm aware of what I eat by reading nutrition facts carefully and keeping portions of processed food under control. My point is, we as consumers need to make a more conscious effort to read nutrition facts and be more aware of portion control when it comes to processed food, especially those that contain high levels of saturated fat.

You can read the warning letter from the FDA here: http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm440942.htm