I got this from Dr. Mercola's website. He is a controversial alternative MD who often speaks out against traditional western foods, meds, and beliefs.

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/arch...Smartest-People.aspx

Lisa Lillien, the featured speaker, does a website and e-newsletter called Hungry Girl. She is not paid to do so, but she evaluates "diet foods" or takes high fat, high calorie recipes and creates healthier versions. I don't necessarily advocate her because she uses so discusses so much processed food, but this is pretty interesting.

As you will see in the video, Lisa has personally found the truth behind food labeling. Dr. Mercola has some very sage advice following!


(Lisa does not get paid by the companies for evaluations, HOWEVER, she always puts the companies' links to their website on her site, and I'm FAIRLY sure she gets paid when you click on the link. . .)

BTWm if you click on the link and it appears the page is empty, scroll down. The statistics box on the side makes the text off on some browsers.

I believe we have a social responsibility to report lies to the authoroties. Who this is will depend on the country you live in. Particularly if a "food" label lies, this could represent a form of attempted genocide.. Perhaps the publicity of suing the company lying like this would make the whole population more "label-wize".

How seldom do you see anyone actually reading the ingredient labels in a "supermarket"? If only we can get people to start doing this, already we may be saving lives and alleviate suffering. I seldom shop in a supermarket but if I do, I refuse for example to buy anything with added sugar as this component is used to "mask" chemical tastes and thus smuggle toxins into your body..

André

It's difficult, though, when food labels are not regulated. The FDA here in the US has what appear to be very lax guidelines for how they are constructed. Only in the last few years has it required identification of potential allergens, like nuts or wheat. That was only after a child's death from anaphylactic shock, sadly.

Salt is also used here for masking flavors. I also believe that people are so tired of hearing what is and isn't good for them, and what is and isn't carcinogenic, what will cause weight loss, low fat is good- then it's bad: so much conflicting information. There are so many extremes here that I think label reading is almost a moot point. People figure, it's good for me now, but it may cause cancer next week! To this day, my mother will not eat avocado. It's too high in fat. I tell her it's GOOD fat, and she says that there IS NO good fat! She has become as disgruntled as anyone else, I guess.

Are food labels government-regulated in South Africa?

Oh, one last thought - there is even controversy over the inclusion on labeling of what the government considers a "healthy" balance of nutrients and caloric intake. The FDA and government are so infiltrated by SIGs (Special Interest Groups) like food companies, many people feel the federal "pyramid" and other food guidelines are artificially stacked so people eat more food. Interesting concept. It would explain a HELLUVA lot!

One can go crazy trying to follow recommendations about health and what is good/bad to eat.
When I was into weight lifting I was bombed by advices like "oh, you can't see any progress without supplements" or "you should take this vitamin and that vitamin and this mineral" or "if you don't eat RIGHT AFTER the workout your muscles will suffer and die"
All is partially true, but mostly a lie. If our bodies were so unefficient we would have extinct thousand of years before.
From my experience, FDA and other institutions that regulate food and drugs are doing a poor job providing only "guidelines".
I may sound out of line but the government rarely cares about your health. The only reason why there's a great movement against obesity in United States is because more people are getting sick and it costs money to treat them.
Also, you can find today four different food pyramids (known to me) that bring even more confusion.
The widely spread USDA pyramid advises that most of your energy intake via food should come from grains. Personally I don't eat grains except oats and rye and even that I eat rarely.
They say to me I see hidden agendas everywhere but think about only one thing: have you ever tried to count all the types of breakfast cereals there is on the supermarket shelf? All of them have some kind of stamp of approval and are labeled as "healthy". The truth is that they are full of sugar (usually more than 12 g per 100 g) which creates addiction to sugar and makes of you an obedient and fat consumer constantly coming back for more.
Another hidden agenda: SPLENDA in Europe. The last time I checked the distribution of Splenda is forbidden in Europe although no research found that Splenda presents more hazard than other sweeteners that are widely distributed across whole Europe. This is a splendid example of the battles between food companies where the profit is more important than the wellbeing of the citizens.

P.S. My advice would be to avoid as much as possible all labeled/processed food. Even unprocessed food like meat, veggies, fruit and whole grains have a certain toxic load (meat: antibiotics, veggies, fruit, grains: pesticides)

I do - trust me. I ws in the organics industry for many years here, am in the process of starting an organic medicinal herb farm, and haven't eaten red meat in 30 years. I occasionally, but rarely, eat a little poultry or fish. But, my big thing is sourcing of food. I have to know where it comes from. Organics from any other countries except US or Canada (on this side of the pond) are always suspect to me. Our government may be corrupt, but it's nothing compared to many other countries on this continent!

Incidentally, www.mypyramid.gov/ This site gives you a 'personalized' pyramid. While it's supposedly based on the RDA of nutrients and other factors, many people still see the special interest group's (SIG's) finger "in the pie", hahaha.

That's true, I don't even trust my own government, but one of the advantages of living in a small country such as mine is, that we have many little farms that, to some extent, try to produce organic food. There's still no big money in organic food so it tends to be a less corrupted field of interest.
I buy meat and eggs directly from those farms that I trust because I know people in charge. Hell, I buy my eggs from my next door neighbour! That are the best eggs in the universe! Unfortunately, all this "little farmers" will be forced to shut down their business because they will not be able to follow the EU food regulations. What was my point? All those food is not labeled nor approved to be safe nor organic but it tastes better. But I'm getting of topic here. I'm writing an eulogy:)
But what pisses me off is the fact that nobody can really trace the source of food if there are to many players with selfish interest in the game.