When companies use multiple fats and sweeteners in their packaged foods, they list them all in order from those used in the largest quantities to those used in the smallest quantities. Clearly, this has necessary benefits; we like to know what we are eating. But, one downside is that if a category like sugar comes in four different forms or, as in the example pictured, fat comes in the form of soybean oil, palm fruit oil, canola oil and olive oil, then you can breeze through the ingredients and be fooled. Believe it or not, there are consumers who follow rules such as do not purchase the snack if sugar is one of the first three ingredients, but what if it is all of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth ingredients? In the box of chocolate chip cookies pictured above, there were only two sugar ingredients but they total 12 grams per serving and out of only 20 carbs, if there were one type of sugar, it probably would be listed before the flour. I have an acquaintance (who hopefully doesn't read my blog) who avoids fat in the first three ingredients. Well, the four oils listed above were the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth ingredients yet the fat content is almost forty per cent of the calories (130 calories, 50 from fat) and a few of those are saturated or processed. And, yes, for full disclosure, of course I ate a few anyway...yikes!!! They were very sweet and somewhat addicting...and, this seems to be a really good brand and a company providing a purportedly healthy gluten-free, vegan, chemical free alternative to mainstream packaged brands. Just think how buried the sugars and fats are in the mainstream brands (I didn't have the heart to buy anything to picture...)
So, what can be done to make labeling more clear for consumers? Just how much math should the average consumer need to do when traipsing down the aisle for a quick snack? The FDA mandated providing the number of calories from fat which allows consumers to do one quick math problem to see how much fat there is in proportion to total calories. But, for sugar, we are given the grams but would have to do one added step of math ourselves. The above pictured product has 12 grams of sugar. So 12 times four calories per gram equals 48 calories from sugar. So, 48 out of the total of 130 is almost 40 per cent sugar. So, pretty close to the percentage of fat...hmm, so if this product is almost 40 per cent fat and almost 40 per cent sugar, that leaves just between 20 and 25 percent for anything else. The anything else is the 2 grams of protein (8 calories) and the 8 grams of remaining carbs (32 calories) totaling 40 calories...(I just want to add that this particular package did have 2 grams of fiber which is a nice plus when eating packaged junk.)
While this whole discussion sounds complicated, it needn't be. A quick and easy macro nutrient chart might help consumers...or just adding to the labeling requirement the percentage of calories from fat and sugar would help. While much more might go into our decision to buy a food, and fiber or healthy fats might make us view the information differently, it would still be helpful to either add a number of calories from sugar requirement (like for fat) or require percentage of calories from sugar and fat to be listed clearly saving us some math...but I have to admit, I do love math.
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