Food Label Zealots, Chemicals, Supplements, and Natural Food: Want Some Chlorophyll?
As a continuance of my assault on the misleading ideas about "natural" food, this is yet another follow-up to a series of blog posts where I discuss chemicals in foods and the concept of natural. In the last one I talked about the difference between chemicals as nutrients and chemicals as pharmacologic agents. I explained that some chemicals in food do have a physiological affect beyond their basic biological functions. Others, such as compounds in herbals used for medicinal purposes simply have no function as a "nutrient." All of these, though, have one thing in common and that is summed up by saying that "The poison OR the remedy is in the DOSE." This is important in helping us recognize the difference between nutrition information and alternative medicine information.
Continue Reading » Food Label Zealots, Chemicals, Supplements, and Natural Food: Want Some Chlorophyll?
Effect of Point-of-Purchase Calorie Labeling on Restaurant and Cafeteria Food Choices: A Literature Review
Eating away from home has increased in prevalence among US adults and now comprises about 50% of food expenditures. Calorie labeling on chain restaurant menus is one specific policy that has been proposed to help consumers make better food choices at restaurants. The present review evaluates the available empirical literature on the effects of calorie information on food choices in restaurant and cafeteria settings.
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What You Don't Get About Trans Fat
What people don’t get about trans fat is that many of the products that have been villainized due to trans fat content, such as regular peanut butter, have always contained less than one gram of trans fat per serving. Some of them, in fact, may have always contained less than 0.5 grams of trans fatty-acids per serving.
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What Does the Word "Fresh" Mean on Food Labels?
The word fresh on food labels is a tricky word because it does not necessarily imply specific nutrient or health claims. That is, a manufacturer might mean the term to mean "good and healthy" by connotation but obviously "fresh" is a relative term since there are always steps involved in the the transition from raw food product to grocery store shelf.
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The Gluten-Free Diet: Safety and Nutritional Quality
The prevalence of Celiac Disease (CD), an autoimmune enteropathy, characterized by chronic inflammation of the intestinal mucosa, atrophy of intestinal villi and several clinical manifestations has increased in recent years. Subjects affected by CD cannot tolerate gluten protein, a mixture of storage proteins contained in several cereals (wheat, rye, barley and derivatives). Gluten free-diet remains the cornerstone treatment for celiac patients. Therefore the absence of gluten in natural and processed foods represents a key aspect of food safety of the gluten-free diet. A promising area is the use of minor or pseudo-cereals such as amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa, sorghum and teff. The paper is focused on the new definition of gluten-free products in food label, the nutritional properties of the gluten-free cereals and their use to prevent nutritional deficiencies of celiac subjects.
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