nosh nook #129 - thursday, september 10, 2009
parowpyro Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 3:00PM new 'smart choices' food labels are deceptive (link)
09.09.09 - fox news - by christopher wanjek
back in the nineties, when saturday night live was still good, they ran an ad for "bad idea jeans." it featured a bunch of dudes sitting around in their sweetly stonewashed bad idea jeans getting ready for a game of hoops & chatting it up. mike myers is all "now that i have kids, i feel a lot better about having a gun in the house." the title card flashes...BAD IDEA. david spade's all "i usually wear protection, but then i thought 'when am i gonna make it back to haiti?'"...BAD IDEA. that's essentially what "smart choices," the "new front-of-pack nutrition labeling program (that) helps shoppers make smarter food and beverage choices within product categories in every supermarket aisle" is...something that people may think is a good idea but is actually a bad idea.
fox news reporter christopher wanjek hates the program too. wow. for once, i actually agree with something said by fox news. that makes me feel very very very very very very dirty. dirty like a fox. aren't they supposed to be for big business? i guess their "anti-label" stance is stronger than their "pro-business" stance. the "smart choices" program is "underwritten by 10 of the largest food companies doing business in the united states" and the items listed as "smart choices" are dubious at best. surprisingly, fox news is also on the same side as the democratic-led government, who has some issue with the program & sent them a letter "explaining politely that they were being monitored." it's like we're in bizzaro world!
i mean, the program has a "snack foods" & "sweets" category that includes items like fudgsicles, teddy grahams & lunchables. eggs? too high in cholesterol to make the list. hellman's mayo? on the list. fruit loops & lucky charms both bear the "smart choices" label, but fruits & vegetables, although automatically on the list, don't bear a label. the average person probably knows that fruits & vegetables are good for you, but if you're relying on a label to tell you what's healthy, you might not. as a result, "the smart choices system merely makes highly processed foods appear healthy when they are not." as wanjek notes, the program's "longevity is questionable, for any consumer relying solely on smart choices checkmarks will surely be diabetic, obese or even dead within a few years." that sounds quite promising.
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Reader Comments (1)
>>wow. for once, i actually agree with something said by fox news...
That's rather funny. Note the I wrote this for LiveScience and the good folks at Fox picked it up. I'm not associated with them. -chris