An Exercise in Nutritional Nit-Picking

by Lou Schuler on Apr 11, 2008 9:07 AM EDT in News

Rehan Jalali flagged this report from ABC News as an example of everything that's wrong with the way the mainstream media covers nutritional issues.

The gist:

The "Nutrition Facts" panels on foods may not be as accurate as you might think. "Good Morning America" hired a lab to test a dozen packaged food products to see if the nutrients in them matched the labels.

"I don't think anyone knows for sure how accurate the nutrition labels are," said Delia Hammock from the Good Housekeeping Institute.

First the good news: three product labels were off, but in a healthy way. Weight Watchers Blueberry Muffins contained even less fat than listed. Nabisco Mini-Oreos and Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chunk Cookies had more protein.

The government actually allows foods to contain 20 percent more diet-damaging nutrients than the label lists before taking enforcement action.

All 12 of our products, were, indeed, over for at least one nutrient. Three of those were over by more than 20 percent, including David's Sunflower Seeds with 23 percent more saturated fat, Ritz Crackers with 36 percent more sodium and Wonder Bread with 70 percent more total fat.

"If you're getting 20 percent more saturated fat or sodium in foods routinely, that's a major problem," said Michael Jacobson, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the nutrition label for Wonder Bread. One slice has 79 calories and 1 (one!) gram of fat. So if you're having two slices with a sandwich, you're getting 2 (two!) grams of fat, according to the label. Even if GMA's tests are completely accurate and the label really is off by 70 percent, that means you'd be getting 3.4 grams of fat, instead of two.

And that would affect your health ... how, exactly? Isn't the real issue that you shouldn't be eating Wonder Bread at all? That sandwich gives you 30 grams of carbs with just 1 gram of fiber, and a measly 4 grams of protein. Is the extra 1.4 grams really the problem here?

The next part of the story borders on hysteria:

The government says trans fats are downright dangerous. The Nabisco Cheese Nips label boasts "0" trans fat but, according to our test, each serving actually contains about a quarter of a gram of the artery-clogging fat. It's perfectly legal, but also troubling because the Food and Drug Administration says Americans should try to eliminate trans fat from their diets.

Personally, I find it troubling that Good Morning America is trying to scare its viewers into believing that inadvertently ingesting a quarter gram of anything is going to make one whit of difference to your health or body-fat percentage.

If they had found trace amounts of lead, cyanide, or salmonella, okay, let's sound the alarms. But a quarter gram of trans fat?

According to this, the World Health Organization recommends that trans fats be less than 1 percent of a person's total daily energy intake. Let's say a person watching GMA has a prudent diet, averaging 2,400 calories a day. One percent is 24 calories. A quarter-gram of fat is 2 calories. You'd have to eat a hell of a lot of Cheese Nips to get to 24 calories of trans fats, wouldn't you?

And that brings me back to the question I asked about Wonder Bread: Why are we quibbling about a quarter-gram of trans fat when a serving of Cheese Nips has 150 calories, with just 1 gram of fiber and 3 grams of protein? Shouldn't the advice be, "Don't eat Cheese Nips because they're nutritionally worthless"?

Weekend blog nips

A reader sent me a link to this very cool story about a 95-year-old woman entering powerlifting contests. Alas, I deleted the email, so I can't thank the reader by name. The story notes that she can deadlift 60 pounds and bench 45. As an aside, it also notes that her 62-year-old daughter competes in powerlifting, which for my money is the most interesting part of the story. I suspect a lot of us parents want our daughters to grow up to be fit and healthy, and we realize that strength is crucial to lifelong fitness. But kids are an easy sell. To pass that message up the chain to one's mother is much more impressive.
According to this report, 20 percent of subscribers to the journal Nature report using cognition-enhancing drugs to sharpen their focus and/or memory. Are we going to have to start drug-testing science fairs and spelling bees? And what about contestants on Jeopardy? Some of those brains look pretty jacked to me.

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