Serving sizes matter so much because as far as the nutrition facts panels go, the breakdown of contents is described in terms of the reported serving sizes. Unrealistically small serving sizes lead to more favourable sounding breakdowns of calories, sodium etc.
For Big Food - it's not really their fault. They're just getting away with what labeling laws have to date allowed them to get away with. Of course the same cannot be said to be true about the Heart and Stroke Foundation's self-administered Health Check program. Simply put, Health Check's nutritional criteria certainly need not be based or built off of patently unrealistic serving sizes - yet they are.
To illustrate what I'm talking about let's take a look at two of the more popular categories - soups and canned beans.
First up is Campbell's Butternut Squash Gardennay Soup. The Heart and Stroke Foundation happily gives it a Health Check because it has 650mg of sodium per nutrition facts panel serving (close to 1/2 of the Heart and Stroke's total daily maximal sodium recommendation) and soups clearly help pay the bills at Health Check. But what's a serving? The panel says a serving is 250mL. 250mL is a cup. Ask any restaurateur and they'll tell you, cups and bowls aren't the same. Most folks sitting down for soup at home are going to eat a bowl.
The New York Times article linked up above also doesn't think a cup's a reasonable, real-life serving of soup and had this to say,
"Many of the soups are billed as “Heart Healthy” and claim to have a reasonable amount of salt per serving. But a shopper has to examine the label closely to understand that the salt claim refers to half a bowl. A full bowl may contain close to half the daily salt allowance recommended for people with high blood pressure."
That picture up top? That's one of my home bowls with a single "serving" of soup in it. Now my bowls aren't particularly large bowls and certainly that single cup in one of my bowls sure doesn't look very satisfying. No question, when we eat soup in our home (and I imagine in your homes too) it's 2 cups per bowl.
So now back to that Health Check'ed soup - my real life serving would therefore give me 1,300mg of sodium. That's 200mg shy of the Heart and Stroke Foundation's total daily maximum.
Think it's just me, that somehow I've either got gigantic bowls, a huge appetite or simply have it in for Health Check? Let's switch to beans.
This past weekend I read an article in the Ottawa Citizen. It was entitled, "Decoding a can of beans" and it looked at the food label of the Health Check'ed Heinz Chili Style Pinto & Red Kidney Beans. The published serving size on the beans is 1/2 a cup. According to the Citizen,
"The sodium content is very high: if you ate a full cup of these beans, a reasonable quantity, you would consume 840 milligrams of sodium",
leading dietitian Rachelle Charlebois to comment,
"If it wasn't for the sodium, canned beans would be such a healthy alternative to lunch meats"
And these are the beans with the Health Check and that photo up above includes what 1/2 a cup of 'em look like.
Health Check'ed soup and beans for dinner? Even if you eat Heart and Stroke sized portions you'd get 1,070mg of sodium (a huge and shameful to be approved by the Heart and Stroke Foundation amount in and of itself). If you eat real life portions because you a) Want a substantial meal and b) Trust the Heart and Stroke Foundation enough not to weigh and measure your food, they'll hand you a heart stopping 2,140mg of sodium. 30% more sodium than the Heart and Stroke Foundation's own total daily recommended maximum!
Now toss in a glass of tomato juice (480mg sodium per glass of the stuff is ok by Health Check) and you're at 2,620mg of sodium in a single Health Check'ed meal and rapidly closing in on two days worth of maximal Heart and Stroke Foundation sodium.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation has no excuses. Remember with Health Check there's an independent body in charge of setting up shop. Unlike nutrition facts panels which are are mandated from on high, Health Check can set any old levels they want and yet they've chosen to set levels that in the majority of Health Check'ed cases are downright bad for you.
So unbelievably sad, pathetic and shameful to abuse the public's trust that way.
(And don't try to talk to me about Health Check's new so-called stricter criteria - the soup'll drop to 960mg per real life serving, the beans to 720mg while the tomato juice is already "stricter" at 480mg per glass)
Once upon a time there were Big Ones who had Little Ones. The Big Ones wanted the Little Ones to be healthy and strong, so they said to the Little Ones, "You must always eat all your meat and all your vegetables."
The Little Ones wanted to be healthy and strong too, so they told the Big Ones, "We won't always eat all our meat and all our vegetables, but we'll always eat all our Li'L Ones yogurt."
So the Big Ones read the label on the Li'L Ones yogurt, and they saw that the Little Ones were very smart indeed, which wasn't surprising because Li'L Ones has DHA. Plus it's made with whole milk to keep them healthy and strong.
So the Big Ones bought their Little Ones lots of Li'L Ones yogurt and they all lived happily every always."
Hmmmmmm.
So this Big One decided to read the label on the Li'L Ones yogurt, and this Big One decided to read the whole label, not just the front of the package, or the cute storybook on their website (as seen below).
Want to know what this Big One found?
This Big One found that the nutrition facts panel on Li'L Ones yogurt, the one the Little Ones "will always eat", the one whose website states was developed with the help of dietitians and shouts is,
"FORTIFIED WITH DHA FOR HEALTHY BRAINS, EYES AND NERVES"
Well that very same yogurt's nutrition facts panel reports that while there are nearly 4 teaspoons of sugar per serving of Li'L Ones, there are 0g of Omega-3 Polyunsaturates.
Wait a sec', isn't DHA an Omega-3 polyunsaturated fat?
So this Big One called up Dairyland customer service to ask about DHA and was told that the amount of DHA that's added to Li'L Ones yogurt is so low that labeling laws in Canada forbid them from reporting any! All told per serving there's only 25mg of DHA, an amount so small that were your toddler to eat a single pea sized serving of salmon they'd be eating the equivalent nearly 3 Li'L Ones worth of DHA! And if you managed to convince your toddler to eat a small 2.5 ounce serving of salmon they'd be getting the DHA equivalent of 64.4 Li'L Ones.
So what does Dairyland's Big One corporate Dietitian Cara Rosenbloom have to say about her company's incredibly sugary product, that as far as Health Canada's concerned has 0g of DHA yet markets itself as brain, eye and nerve food for toddlers?
"Toddlers need sufficient intake of the omega-3 fat called DHA, which supports the normal development of the brain, eyes and nerves. It can be found in salmon, trout, enriched eggs and Dairy-Oh! Milk and Li’L Ones yogurt."
Gee thanks Cara - great job promoting your company's product at the expense of properly interpreting a nutrition facts panel for the public.
[Interesting side note - Cara's a busy lady. She's also part of the Technical Advisory Committee for Heart and Stroke's Health Check program where given Health Check's laxity in inclusion criteria it certainly doesn't appear as if she's doing any better a job there at interpreting nutrition fact panels]
Saturday Stories 6.2.2010 10:30:0 +0000 Stories that managed to capture my minuscule attention span this week:
Brian Switek of Laelaps covers the much bally-hoo'd report on barefoot running (complete with cool video.
The New York Times covers the story of how an all-American kid became a terrorist leader in Somalia.
Orac from Respectful Insolence schools reporters in how not to report science and medical news.
Steven Novella from Neurologica further eviscerates the Desiree Jennings dystonia case.
Julie from Dinner with Julie announces the launch of Blogaid: Recipes for Haiti. 27 food bloggers band together to create a cookbook with proceeds going to help support relief efforts in Haiti.
And for a self serving one - CBC Marketplace has me have a peek at the studies Herbal Magic suggests supports 2 of their products' efficacies.
Lastly, ever wonder what happens to a man kicked in the groin with 1,100lbs of force? Well wonder no more and watch this video from the show Sport Science (email subscribers will need to head to the blog to view):
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If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.
My Dearest Friend, if circumstance would allow at this time I would say let us walk together through our existence in this world. Thank you Cyn for the friendship :) Have a lovely weekend!
great! i have never heard of zigime, let me know im always open to anything especially if it is being brought to me by a friend. until then take care x
We all need someone to talk to in our life, a friend to whom we run in times of stress or strife: together we must each have ground that's where love's nourishment is found. Have a wonderful weekend my friend :)
Hi Cyne! In the Soo is getting cold, but, that is ok! I already look forward to ice fishing. Leaves starting to change colors and views are spectacular; fall is my favorite time of the year just like winter. Hunting season has started and plenty of time I’ll spend in the bush…yep! I love it. Where do you live? Enjoy your day and be grateful that is above the water. Warm hugs to you my friend.
MS Excel (or any spreed sheet program)would be great for that and you could also copy and paste when you need to use the links. make a columns for 'program name', 'referral link', 'ID', etc. then you can sort the columns by alphabet or whatever.
or
just create a notepad document for each program and name it after the program. Then use it like a 'notepad' for each program... keep the programs' affiliate links, user names, maybe passwords, listed on the document. Then you can put the notepad files you have for each program in a folder in 'your docs' and use the file sort features in your operating system. sort by date modified, name(alpha-numeric), file size ...etc.
Are you talking about me specifically or any one generally? what links are you referring to? you want then easy for others to find or for you to keep track of them?
9/24/2010
Cynergy Diva
48 years old Female South Eastern Ontario, Canada Hometown: Montreal QC
My nest is empty now and I'm looking for new endeavours to keep me busy.While recovering from my broken ankle, I've been let go from my office job, so I've been exploring ways to do something for myself in order to be free from the demands of other people. To that end, I've been looking at learning how to market online. Experimenting with a lot of different things - some of them turned out to be scams - I have stumbled on something that looks really intriguing that I'm going to examine further. (See MoreNiche blog)
I really like this online socializing. The internet really makes the world a small place, and I hope I can really broaden my horizons and meet a lot of new people. Lifelong learning and personal empowerment are important to me. I'm always looking for new ways to improve myself, and if anything I learn can be passed on for the benefit of others, then that makes me happy.
I love the girly stuff: knitting, sewing,quilting, crafting and shopping.
I love to read too, but I'm really passionate about seeing my fellow humans better themselves and their circumstances. Cynergy (Synergy) is my keyword.
R&B - New Country - Pop - Jazz
I like most music and I'm not fanatical about any one artist. About the only music I can't take is Opera and Heavy Metal. My favorite radio stations are: BBC Radio 2; KJAZZ; and the local oldies station AM 1220 Cornwall
Fave song as of Aug 2007 The Way I Are
Movies:
My faves are The Grapes of Wrath, Corrina, Corrina & Edward Scissor Hands - The last movie I saw was Stomp The Yard - 2 thumbs up!
TV:
My two favorites are British soaps Coronation Street and Eastenders; I love the Brit coms and westerns too
Books:
I like to read for personal development, and I love historical and generational sagas, but I'm not ashamed to say that I do enjoy trashy romance novels too. Some of the books that I have enjoyed are: The The Power of Intention by Dr Wayne Dyer - The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - Just about all of Danielle Steele's novels. Now Reading: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
by Eckhart Tolle
by Dr Wayne Dyer - The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - Just about all of Danielle Steele's novels. Now Reading: 
by Eckhart Tolle 