Lowcarbezine!

"Low Carb" Doesn't Always Mean "Good For You"

I am the Label Reading Police. I regularly nag my readers to read the labels on every food they put in their bodies (or, for that matter, give to their families.) So it's embarrassing to admit that I recently picked up some of the new Progresso Carb Monitor soups without reading the labels. Heck, I even popped the top, poured the Chicken Enchilada Cheese soup into a bowl, nuked it, and scarfed it down before reading the label.

Imagine my chagrin when I looked at that label, and found the words "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil." Trans fats. Junk of the lowest order. About the only thing in the food processing world that could arguably be called worse than high fructose corn syrup. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil has no carbs, but that doesn't mean we should be eating it.

You can bet I won't be buying the Chicken Enchilada Cheese soup again, and I certainly can't recommend that you buy the stuff. But that's not the point.

The point is that we mustn't become complacent. Just because something says "carb reduced" or "for a carb controlled lifestyle" or any one of the umpteen-odd other phrases that the food processors have come up with to suggest to us - hint, hint! - that their products are just great for us, doesn't mean it's so.

Be aware that there is NO regulation at all of label claims regarding net carb count and appropriateness for a low carbohydrate diet. It's the Wild West out there. You are very definitely on your own, and if you don't read the labels - not just the carb count, but the ingredient list, and the serving size - you may very well be torpedoing your weight loss and your health, and paying a hefty premium to do it.

Posted by HoldTheToast at October 6, 2004 09:52 PM