Content warning: This article discusses eating disorders.
Curious about your food? Just read the label! In the United States, most packaged foods and chain restaurant menus must display their nutritional value, with the exception of small manufacturing companies and some unprocessed foods. When picking up a packaged snack, you should at least be able to see its total fats, saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, total sugars, added sugars, proteins and some key elements micronutrients. There is also a handy column, “% Daily Value,” which estimates how much of a given nutrient the food provides in an average diet of 2,000 kilocalories (that’s calories in parlance fluent). Whether these values are minimum, maximum or median is entirely up to the consumer.
Although it provides essential transparency about food contents, nutritional information should be taken with a grain of salt. A 2013 study found that the actual median servings of several “energy-dense” snack foods were 1.2% heavier than those listed on their labels. After accounting for the gap between servings, the researchers measured 4.3 percent more calories in their food samples than what was advertised on the product labels. To be fair, labels are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which updates occasionally requirements to reflect scientific consensus on dietary needs and consumption habits.
Labels make food a numbers game. Even if you don’t watch your calorie intake, the big bold number on the side of a snack’s package probably catches your eye from time to time. While it can be helpful in some situations to know approximately how much energy you can expect to gain from a half-cup of (dairy-free) breakfast cereal, it is far too easy for consumers who would otherwise are not required to meet a strict daily quota, to let themselves be swept aside. to the point of becoming obsessed with counting calories.
According to FDA, portion sizes are meant to roughly correspond to a typical amount of a certain food or drink consumed at one time, potentially with other items of varying nutritional values. The website clearly states that portion sizes are not a recommendation for how much to eat or drink, but it nevertheless asks the reader to pay attention to food portion sizes to understand how many calories are consumed at that time.
However, in addition to calories, labels are important for adhering to dietary restrictions, whether health-oriented or self-imposed. For the most part, ingredient lists provide valuable information for religious and ethical diets.
In an interview with the Michigan Daily, LSA sophomore Marley Davis spoke about the complex role labels have played in her relationship with food.
“I think for a while (food labels) were harmful, but it was more about the calories,” Davis said.
Davis told the Daily that as a vegan, she checks food labels or restaurant ingredient lists at least once a day. However, depending on where she is, she will read for different information.
“Usually at a restaurant they only have a few vegan options, so I eat what they have because I’m not picky and I don’t want to be a burden,” Davis said. “But in stores, I’ll definitely look and see if it has specific ingredients that I don’t think are good. In this case, I will not buy them and look for a different option.
My own experience reading labels mirrors Davis’s. I’ll easily choose restaurants and packaged foods that advertise their vegan status over more obscure choices, and it’s good to know how much sugar is in a treat I might get after class. On the other hand, like Davis, I also had a restrictive relationship with labels and calorie counting in high school. I would not consider any of my past or present eating habits to be a disorder, and I have never been diagnosed; today, I am quite satisfied with my relationship with food. Yet from time to time I feel the need to add up what I eat each day, even outside of any tangible fitness goals.
Resources and studies on food labels, particularly on portion sizes and calorie counts like those I referenced, often pathologize obesity and higher daily calorie intake levels. This is a complex and delicate subject, and a complete withdrawal of medical fatphobia This is beyond the scope of this column, but labels nevertheless play a curious role in food choices for this purpose. According to a 2018 study Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, nutrition labels appear to reduce consumers’ intake of nutrients like sodium and trans fats (when present). At the same time, a 2017 study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders found that the presence of menu labels does not significantly exacerbate the dangerous habits of anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder.
Food labels aren’t perfect, but they are useful. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for measuring nutrients and energy in food, and there shouldn’t be. In addition to bringing nuance to dietary health care, we all need to be careful about how we talk to ourselves and others about what and how much we eat. Don’t fear the label, but please don’t worship it either.
Nick Rubeck is an opinion columnist from Williamston, Michigan. He writes about what our food, media, and physical spaces can tell us about ourselves. He can be contacted at nmrubeck@umich.edu.
