A major grocery store chain has added a line in their stores called Simple Truth. It is advertised as healthy, natural and organic and there's probably no reason at all to read the labels I thought. So, I didn't read the label of the organic "plain" low fat yogurt I purchased last week. I didn't read the label until right before I needed to add some of it to the yogurt I was making. Imagine my surprise when I read the following ingredients:
Cultured pasteurized organic lowfat milk, organic skim milk, organic corn starch, organic locust bean gum, pectin, vitamin a palmitate and vitamin D3.
If I had not been making my own yogurt for two years, I might have thought all those ingredients were necessary. They are not. Yogurt is made with milk and a little plain yogurt as starter. I'm not arguing with their labeling exactly except maybe for the "natural" part. I'm sure they have followed all guidelines so that they can label their products as they do.
The only other thing in that line that I had purchased was a bag of quinoa so I looked to see if it had anything added. No, it was okay just organic quinoa from Peru.
Yesterday, as we were headed to the cash register to pay for our groceries, I spotted a bin of Simple Truth peanut butter and grabbed a jar to see what ingredients were listed. It was labeled organic and natural and the ingredients included palm oil. Maybe I'm taking them too literally. When I read natural on a label, I really expect it to be very simple. I want peanut butter that has nothing more than salt added.
I have not written them off but I will read the labels when I'm tempted to buy more of their products.
I never believe the hype. :) If I recall correctly, 'natural' means only that there are no fake colors or other manufactured ingredients, like chemicals, added to the product.
ReplyDeleteKroger has a store brand of PB that has peanuts and salt. Nothing else. It's one of those that has to be stirred, but it tastes great and it's worth it to me not to have sugar and other stuff added.
The word 'natural' is actually completely unregulated and undefined as it pertains to food advertising/packaging, Caron. Any food can put 'natural' on the label, no matter what its ingredients consist of, and it is completely legal. They can also use 'natural' as part of the brand name without any actual definition of the term. Cocaine is a natural substance. So is gasoline. The word means nothing. Keep reading your labels; you know what ingredients are red flags!
ReplyDeleteYeah...what she said above me.
ReplyDeleteNobody will go grocery shopping with me because I can literally spend HOURS perusing the aisles and reading labels. In the end, I rarely try anything new and almost always get the same things ;)
ReplyDeleteLooking at those ingredients, I honestly don't see what's wrong with it. I have some homework to do so I understand what is natural and what is not... :(
ReplyDeleteLabels are always changing in Australia. I used to just read the fat amount before, but now you have to read all sorts of things: sodium, sugar etc. No wonder shopping takes so long to do these days if you are concerned about what you're putting into your mouth and body.
ReplyDeleteHi Caron! You have to read the labels. One time, I accidentally purchased a yogurt that had as many calories per cup as ice cream. Isn't that rather disgusting to have an un-desserty yogurt that is as sugary and fattening as real dessert?! I just dumped it into the garbage.
ReplyDelete:-) Marion
I've found that highlight labels - like Organic, Natural, Whole Grains - that are splashed on the cover of boxes can be really misleading. I still read labels, and I'm still amazed at how much extra 'stuff' is put in foods.
ReplyDeleteRIGHT! I have all but stopped eating boxed things... even LoCarb things... for that very reason. You get it home and the label scares ya, sometimes... all the junk in some of those food products! Not to mention the sugar - and other so-called NATURAL additives.... who KONWS what they are!
ReplyDeleteI was never a label reader other than to look at calories and fat - its suprising what people can label "healthy!"
ReplyDeleteOh my lord, I fell for the Simple Truth marketing ploy myself. It is silly of me, I knew better. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThat's awful! I buy Smuckers brand Natural Peanut Butter and all it has is ground peanuts.
ReplyDeleteBefore we moved we bought the Trader Joe's brand which was also nothing added.
I recently read an article about quinoa and Peru. It's long been a food staple in that country and was always very cheap. Now that it's taken off in the US and Europe as a super food, the prices have skyrocketed and people in Peru can no longer afford to feed their families! Crazy. Hopefully things will die down and go back to normal for them soon.
the brand rep for this company was at our last meeting.... like anything you have to read the fine print!!! she gave us a bunch of the energy bars and I had a few.... just a glorified candy bar.... oops I shouldn't be bashing the label my company carries
ReplyDeleteoh well.... truth is truth!!