A lot of talk lately has centered around nutrition labels...making them easier to understand, more applicable to the way people eat, etc, etc. Do we really need to have this? The single most important thing on a nutrition label can't be manipulated or changed - the ingredient list. It's that simple. Junk into your body = lousy nutrition. I mean, a piece of fruit has sugar and so does a piece of chocolate but nutritionally, your body processes it different. No label can account for that.
Being a food manufacturer, I have a strong sense of responsibility to provide food that tastes good but also is a food I would be okay putting in my body. It is so frustrating reading a "natural" label, or people asking me if we make a calorie free peanut butter. Just think about that. Calorie free peanut butter. That is not possible. Food has calories. It's supposed to. It is how our bodies work. The problem is that food is no longer food. And people consume it in much larger quantities than our bodies were designed to need. There is no simple answer but rather a lifestyle overhaul to make us healthy. Starving our bodies and feeding onchemicals will NOT make you healthy. Maybe you'll lose weight but is that the overall goal for our lives? Living a healthy life full of energy is way more important to me.
Just to illustrate what I mean, here's an example of two labels.
First one:
Serving Size: 1 Tablespoon
Calories: 60
Sodium: 35 mg
Fat: 3 g
Carbohydrates: 8g; Sugar: 8g
Protein: 2 g
Next one:
Serving Size: 1 oz (about 2 Tablespoons)
Calories: 131
Sodium: 2 mg
Fat: 9g
Carbohydrates: 5g: Fiber 2 g, Sugar 3g
Protein: 4g
So far, which would you eat? Does the label really tell you all that you need to know?
Now for the ingredients:
First one:
Peanuts, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Water, Tapioca Starch, Dextrose,
Hydrogenated Rapeseed/Cottonseed Oil, Contains 2% or less of the
following: Egg Whites, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Carboxmethyl, Cellulose,
Tartaric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Heliotrophine,
Hydrochloric Acid, Sodium Benzoate
Second one:
Peanuts, Pecans, Raw Muscavado Sugar, Ghee
Did that help any more? Which do you think says "Homemade" on the label? Would it surprise you to know that it's not the 2nd one? It is homemade but it doesn't need to try and fool you.
I won't tell you what the first one is...but I will tell you it is sold as an Amish Homemade Peanut Butter. Seriously. What in that ingredient list says homemade to you? Is it the Propylene Glycol? Is it the Sodium Carboxmethyl? The Hydrochloric Acid maybe? I hope you get the idea. I would have no idea where to get those things or why I'd even want them in my food. Is your peanut butter being free flowing that important to you?
I will say that the second one is our Butter Pecan nut butter and it is spreadable and wonderfully tasty and beyond all of that is is FOOD. All food. Real and wonderful and calorie and fat laden. Now, I am not saying that eating a diet full of fat is okay. It's not. We have a resposibility to our bodies to nourish them in healthy ways. But I am saying that a typical diet of processed, quick, fast crap is not the way.
