Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 6 : Fall 2010 | Page 48

Healthy You:

The Secrets Lurking
In Your Pantry
by Kim Jones, Cary Medical Center

A few years back, I was diagnosed with several
food allergies and was told that the best way to treat this
condition was to avoid the foods I was allergic to. Armed
with this information, I set out to follow my doctor’s
orders by reading food labels to figure out what I should or
should not eat. I soon discovered, however, that that was
no easy task. (Did you know there are over 70 ingredients
considered as dairy, one of my allergens, including many
I hadn’t heard of before like potassium casseinate, whey
protein hydrolysates, lactalbumin, and recaldent? I sure
didn’t!)

It turns out that reading and understanding food
labels can be tricky. 15-letter ingredients, deceptive food
industry marketing, changes in nutrition recommendations,
and lax Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies can
make grocery shopping as challenging as the final round of
Jeopardy. But regardless of whether or not you have food
allergies, it is important to understand labels so you can
make smart food choices. Study after study has proven
that what you eat plays a significant role in your risk for
diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, as well
as contributes to how you look, feel, and age.
THE SECRETS

One of the biggest obstacles in deciphering food
labels is misleading marketing. It pains me, as a marketing
professional, that many companies rely on deception to
sell their products. In the food industry, they know that
many people are in a hurry when they are grocery shopping
and that most won’t take time to read the fine print. “It’s
easy to be confused by food labels,” said Kim Malone, Cary
Medical Center Registered Dietitian. “Unless you’re buying
only fresh fruits and vegetables, it’s very likely that you will
purchase foods that appear to be healthier than they actually
are because of exaggerated claims on the label.”

To help you make healthier choices the next time
you’re shopping for groceries, be aware of these common
food industry secrets:
Secret #1: A picture is worth a thousand calories.

Food companies spend millions of dollars on
designers, artists, and the like to make their product stand
out on crowded store shelves. Marketers know that the
right picture can give the impression that the product is
healthful or tasty, therefore increasing the likeliness that the
consumer will buy it. A classic example of this is fruit drinks.
46 County Health FALL 2010

Colorful, fresh fruits adorn the front of many popular juice
bottles, but a glance at the back of the label shows that the
first three ingredients are water, high fructose corn syrup,
and artificial flavoring with less than 2% actual juice. And
if you look closely, many packaged foods are photogra Y