Why you should never trust a low-carb label

May 22 2013 by in Fake low-carb products

Here’s ANOTHER company, eat-rite, selling “low carb” pizza, chocolate and candy. As usual it sounds too good to be true.

Amazingly products with wheat flour etc. as their main ingredient are labeled “low carb”. And when they’re analyzed it turns out they contain between 4 and 8 times more carbs than the label claims. For example, one product didn’t contain 7 grams of carbs as listed on the label, it was really 53 grams.

High carb

So what happens after their lies get exposed on TV? Nothing. The company keeps selling their fraudulent products as if nothing has happened, and the FDA seems not to care.

The lesson? Never ever trust a processed product with a “low carb” label, especially not if it’s similar to bread, pasta or sweets. Chances are you’re being played for a fool. Eat real low-carb food instead.

19 comments

1
Cecilia
May 22 2013
That's right. I made the mistake of buying "sugar free" sweets. They contained more carbo-hydrates (82g for 100g) than regular sweets (79g for 100g). Never eat sweets again!
2
FrankG
May 22 2013
It is shameful (if not downright dangerous for some) and ought to serve as a wake-up for those who insist we don't need regulation, or that the free-market can somehow constrain food manufacturers to "do the right thing" by consumers.

For me nutritional labels have just become another marketing tool and this is yet another reason why I don't buy any food that comes with a label -- you can't go far wrong with fresh, locally sourced and seasonal food that is prepared at home... it is the way we have survived for so long as species :-)
3
Eddie Mitchell
May 22 2013
A few years ago the EU tried to change laws making the accurate and honest labelling of food mandatory. The usual multinational food giants spent 800 million Euros ensuring the lies and deceit continues. The default mind set for everyone must be, don’t believe a word these companies say ! Always remember, profit is the primary motivation, your health is secondary.
4
bernardo
May 22 2013
I think this case is exactly one that doesn'tneed moder regulation. Imagine if all small companies, restaurants, stands, farms were enforced to make expensive tests on every product they had? Now the big corporations get all the power as they mass produce and the cost of regulations for them is irrelevant. And your attitude proves that. The label is an example of a regulation that you ignore completetly because it's flawed. Yes, most regulations are flawed, and most benefit big corporations. Sometimes it's even worse, the regulation is simply wrong and causes harm to consumers. What's your opinion on raw milk?

Well, in the end it's always up to you, as you do yourself, don't trust anything blindly, make your research, get informed, get better and inform other people if you can. I hope they are as skeptic about "official" and "common sense" opinions as I am, if not, they are going to ignore you and follow the official "experts".

I think we live in a wonderful time where information is no longer broadcasted from one center (few media outlets) to millions. Now we can direct our search. If you want to know about a product, search for opinions on it. Share your thoughts on stuff you have used. Visit the DietDoctor blog for the latest fake low carb bread! The government is not equiped, and will never be, to replace this wonderful network of thinking people.

Cheers!

Replies: #6, #10
5
alan
May 22 2013
i repeat my thoughts: eat meat , fish, veggie. no need to worry about anything else.
i try to consume products that have max 2/3 ingredients including the food itself.
if i need to substitute bread, cereals, sugar etc, something is not working well with low carb lifestyle .
that is my opinion and it works for me.
6
Reply to comment #4 by bernardo
es
May 22 2013
>>>imagine if all small companies, restaurants, stands, farms were enforced to make expensive tests on every product they had?

That's not required for accurate labeling. All that's needed is keeping track of the ingredients used to make to product. If the flour contains x grams of carbs there will be x grams in the finished product.

The problem with the regulations is that they require labels, but don't require that be honest or accurate. Until that happens, the advice not to trust labels on processed foods is pretty good.

ES
7
chris krause
May 22 2013
Has anyone done an analysis for smart & delicious low carb tortillas? They seem legit but i prefer science.
8
Bjjcaveman
May 22 2013
Sneaky sneaky sneaky...
9
Patrick
May 22 2013
Just like counting calories. Counting the carbs in process foods, it's going to be inaccurate. Counting anything on a food process label, is just a waste of time to do. it seems the fraud labeling is going to take some time for it to go away.
10
Reply to comment #4 by bernardo
FrankG
May 22 2013
Did I say anything about enforcing labeling on every food? No I did not. But where labeling is required its accuracy ought to be enforced

Would you apply your own paradigm of personal responsibility to your local water supply? Aren't there regulations to keep it safe and clean, with consequences if it is not?

My opinion on raw milk (since you asked) is that: if I knew what I was buying, from where and I trusted the framer, then I'd have no problems with it. On the other hand if I were buying from an huge distribution plant that collected milk from thousands of outlying dairies before mixing it all together, I would expect (as is the regulation in Canada at least) that it be pasteurised for safety.

It is a shame that currently I can't buy raw milk where I live but I support any move to open up the market to allow small-scale producers as I described above. Meantime I buy all my milk and cheese from a single-herd dairy that I can visit at any time, where I meet the farmer face to face. Where the cows are only treated with medicine if they are sick while their milk is isolated from the product. It is whole milk, non-homogenised and treated with a longer lower-temp method that does not break it down as much as the industrial process.

I am voting with my dollars by supporting this dairy and the other local producers but none of that undermines my conviction that part of MY government's role is to act on behalf of the people it represents to ensure safety of food, water, roads etc...
11
yuma
May 22 2013
It is shameful that certain individuals, enamored with rogue tyrants, such as Hitler, Comrade Stalin, Chairman Mao, Mayor Bloomberg, Castro, Chavez, etc., want to impose on the rest of us these despots under the illusion that they know what's good for us and will do the "right" thing.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana

Reply: #13
12
Bernardo
May 22 2013
I agree with everything you said, FrankG, including that in some cases regulation is necessary (laws are much like regulations). I just think that it should be kept at minimum. In the case protrayed in the video, you could certanly sue and punish those that lie about their products, close their business, expose them and ask for compensation. There are laws that would cover that, right? The problem I see with regulations is that it costs a lot and are not very effective, punishing everyone (including the consumer who pays more) because of a few. If you think about it, would the FDA be able to function if it had to be 100% sure of every item it approves? It can't be sure, it will never be sure. Their seal of approval never meant anything, and people should be aware of that, specially considering all its economic and political attachments. In the end, when a company claims it makes some wonder item, the best thing to do is research for yourself. You seem very consious of that, as everyone should be. The problem is governments and beurocrats want to put in evidence their "value" posing as the necessary saviours of which everyone is dependable. I say more power to the people! Let them know that they are perfectly able to take care of themselves!

By the way, I'm from Canada too (Montréal). Cheers!

Reply: #14
13
Reply to comment #11 by yuma
FrankG
May 23 2013
I'm not even going to bother responding to the false accusation of my attitude as being supportive of Hitler and the rest.

Mistakes of the past.. let's see: open sewers running in the streets, contaminated water supplies, rancid food, horse meat being sold as beef, baby formula "cut" with dangerous but cheap cleaning powder -- unfortunately these are not even just mistakes of the past... I can think of recent examples if you bothered to look around the world at other countries which do not enjoy the level of regulation and government intervention that protect you from the unscrupulous practices of others. Bans on smoking in public places, seat belt laws, traffic laws -- how many lives have these saved and how much do they infringe on your oh so precious civil liberties. You know it really pisses me off to have to wait in line to go through security at an airport but if it means everybody on the plane is safer then so be it! Suck it up and remember we live in a society, not as individuals.

I'll be the first to admit that the current governments in pretty much every country are far from perfect but I haven't given up on the democratic system yet.

I take responsibility for what I eat and I have a vested interest in doing so -- as did the Type 1 Diabetic mentioned in the above video -- doesn't she have the right to reasonably expect a food label to be honest and trustworthy?

Reply: #15
14
Reply to comment #12 by Bernardo
sten b
May 23 2013
You wrote: " In the case protrayed in the video, you could certanly sue and punish those that lie about their products,..."
I think our problem is that the raw milk supplier can be sued and punished even for supplying milk to a buying club, as per a current court case in the US, while there exists no set punishment for deceptful labeling of products, although the damage made here can be substantial as shown in the video. A system that is not enforced is a pure joke. Keep testing and expose so people find out that the only food you can trust is the food that doesn't need labeling!
Yet hard to see farmed salmon from wild, grass finished beef from CAFO, etc..
Spending some miles a month to go visit the producer and buy direct is not a bad idea!
15
Reply to comment #13 by FrankG
yuma
May 23 2013
You are constantly injecting into these discussions your infatuation with big government.

This forum - LCHF - is not the appropriate venue to discuss political issues.

People do not come here to read about politics.

However, do not even think that not providing a book-like response to your inaccuracies means that you have the ultimate truth. You don't.

I can easily destroy each one of your arguments for an oppressive and intrusive big government.

The worldwide history of big governments - that have killed millions of people - speaks for itself.

By the way, in 1933 Hitler was elected under a "democratic system."
16
Eric Anderson
May 27 2013
I am more interested in reading on topic posts like:
Someone making home made flax bread or rolls
Maybe a macadamia nut bread like or almond bread like jeff nimoy

any cooks who can say good or not good?

Also several ketogenic diets for medical needs have HFLC bread like cooking

Eric
17
Holley Briere
May 15 2017
I love food
18
Julie
March 26 2019
If you tried the low carb garlic bread recipe you’d love it so much you’d never want to buy others!
19
Irene
May 8
The companies know when they are ripping people off. There should DEFINITELY be consequences for lying on the labels. At the very least, the company should owe everyone who purchased from their company a full refund. Why even bother having labels when the labels can claim anything?

19 comments

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