1. When we recently examined big food companies over a five-year period, we found that 99 percent of their growth was coming from lower-calorie products. That was, quite frankly, a stunning surprise. So they’re not just sitting around on their hands. They are moving in the right direction.
2. The concept of “the dose makes the poison” is very important in the realm of food, especially when it comes to natural flavors and artificial colors. All food ingredients and nutrients—even those we need to survive—have a threshold for safety. When caramel color was approved, nobody anticipated how much of it would be used in the food and beverage industry. It’s in a lot of foods you don’t expect: certain soups, pilaf, and hamburger, for example. So if everything you eat is from a box, a can, or a bag, then you may get too much and have reason for concern. But if you eat a variety of foods, you don’t have to worry.
3. Manufacturers can hide things under natural flavoring. When I started in this business and was interviewing possible partners, I was shocked at the amount of deception. Manufacturers and copackers would ask what ingredients I was using for preservation, and then they would tell me, You know you can use X or Y—just call it natural flavoring on the package. No one will know.
4. The red color in many foods1 comes from crushed insects. If you see carmine or cochineal extract in an ingredients list, the product contains a little powdered bug. But aside from being an allergen for a small number of people, it’s considered safe. Alternatives are petroleum-derived chemicals Red No. 40 and No. 3, which some studies have linked to such health problems as hyperactivity in children and cancer in animals. I’d rather have the insects, to be honest.
5. Some producers hide sugar by giving it different names—high-fructose corn syrup, cane crystals, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, agave nectar, and fruit juice concentrate. If a product has a lot of sugar, some companies will intentionally use two or more different types so sugar doesn’t end up being number one on the ingredients list. The FDA has proposed a change that would require manufacturers to add up all these types of sugar and list them as added sugars.
6. Many “high in fiber” products are stuffed with what is essentially fake fiber. It’s not as healthy as the naturally occurring fiber in whole grains and vegetables. It may even cause gas, bloating, and other stomach problems. Watch out for chicory root, maltodextrin, and polydextrose on the ingredients list.
7. FDA regulation does allow some insect parts [from harvesting, the manufacturing process, etc.] in your food. Peanut butter can have up to 30 insect parts per 100 grams. It has no effect on the healthiness, but people might want to know.
8. For many additives that go into food, our regulatory system is pretty close to nonexistent. The FDA lets food manufacturers do their own safety testing and decide independently whether ingredients are “generally recognized as safe.” There are no specific mandatory guidelines about the type of testing they have to do. They don’t even have to tell the FDA about new additives they’re using.
9. In my experience, one thing that really surprised me is that no governing body is required to precheck nutritional labels for accuracy. When we develop a product, we use software to create the label, but we don’t have to submit it to anyone. It’s all self-policed. I think the only time the FDA would look at it would be if customers were complaining.
10. A lot of the foods we eat have interesting origins. For example, the bacteria responsible for sourdough bread originally came from rodent feces. Any sourdough you eat has that history, yet it’s all perfectly safe and delicious.
11. Cereal is nowhere near as wholesome as companies want you to believe. The manufacturing process destroys a lot of the natural nutrition, even if the product contains whole grains. That’s why virtually every cereal has a long list of added vitamins and minerals. In my family, we don’t eat cereal very often, and we look for ones that have less than eight grams of sugar per serving.
12. If you’re prone to diabetes, stick to regular pasta instead of whole wheat. Whole wheat pasta often has more starch than regular because of the way it’s ground. Or just look for a pasta with a low glycemic index, which some brands put on the box.
13. Baked, popped, or low-fat “chips” may seem healthier. But often, they’re just baked conglomerations of highly refined potato flakes, refined grains, and different kinds of powders. You may be better off eating potato chips, made with real potatoes fried in a healthful oil.
SOURCES: Katherine Tallmadge; Kantha Shelke, PhD; Melanie Warner; Rob Dunn, PHD, a biologist at NC State University and the author of The Man Who Touched His Own Heart; Joel Warady, chief marketing officer of Enjoy Life Foods; Michael Jacobson, PhD; Jordan Pierson, chief marketing officer of Wink Frozen Desserts; Robert J. Davis, PhD, author of Coffee Is Good for You: From Vitamin C and Organic Foods to Low-Carb and Detox Diets, the Truth About Diet and Nutrition Claims; Walter Willett, MD, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston; Daniel Tapper, author of Food Unwrapped: Lifting the Lid on How Our Food Is Really Produced; Jason Burke; Kantha Shelke, PhD, a food scientist who specializes in ingredients at Corvus Blue, a Chicago-based research firm; Former food-industry executive Hank Cardello, director of the Obesity Solutions Initiative at the Hudson Institute (a nonprofit think tank) and author of Stuffed.