46. Nutrition "Facts"

Americans get confused when they try to understand food labels (“Nutrition Facts”) on their packaged food. is partly because the Food and Drug Administration the Department of Agriculture often seem more interested the welfare of the food industry than in health of consumers.

For example, even though health and the federal government itself tell consumers to their salt intake, processors continue to add salt packaged food. Salt occurs naturally in many foods, why do processors add more? Perhaps processors think extra salty food will make the consumers thirsty to buy more soda and other beverages that processors also make.

“Serving Size” is supposed to the amount an average adult would eat at sitting as part of a regular meal. However, 6-ounce container may have anywhere from 1 to servings, depending on the food inside the container. 6-ounce can of Crabmeat contains one serving, while 6-ounce can of Pink Salmon Chunks contains 3 .

With the federal government’s approval, processors use labeling helps to sell the product, regardless of how or deceptive the label is to the consumer. a consumer sees “200 calories” on a can tuna fish, he might not buy it because is a lot of calories. But if the sees “20 calories” (because the can of tuna has 10 servings!), he doesn’t worry that the contains too many calories. All he sees is number 20. That makes him happy, and it the processor happy.