Learning to understand labels. This may make your head hurt, but it’s important to understand as a consumer.
I was going reviewing a meal log with my client yesterday. She’s exploring new foods and purchased this yogurt to try out.
Initially you might look at this and think - zero sugar, low calorie, higher protein, no artificial flavors…looks pretty good, right?
Wrong.
This is a great example of taking what is normally a nutrient dense, whole food, and turning it into an ultra-processed, "Franken-Food.”
Let’s explore why.
Dairy products are made from the mother’s milk of the animal, goat, sheep, cow, camel, buffalo. They naturally contain a mixture of water, fat, proteins (casein and whey), minerals and vitamins (calcium, riboflavin, potassium, magnesium, zinc and iodine, phosphorus, vitamin A, B12), lactose (a sugar) and trace amounts of enzymes (lipases).
Dairy, in its original state, is a whole, real, food. Our bodies, in general, know how to break down and utilize its components.
So, let’s look at the front label packaging and the nutritional highlights. Do you notice the next to Zero Sugar? Warning bells! Then look at Nutritional Highlights at “Zero Sugar, Not a low calorie food” More warning bells. Look below under ingredients. The third ingredient, allulose, is a sugar, albeit a better probiotic sugar (we’ll come back to this), stevia leaf and monk fruit – sugars.
So why does a “Zero Sugar” food have three different sugars added to it?
Because of the “Ultra-Filtered” non-fat milk (notice the two **).
This ultrafiltration process removes half of the naturally occurring sugar, making it close to lactose free. AND, to confuse you even further, it boasts having twice the protein to sugar ratio – which it does not. But by concentrating the protein to sugar ratio, it can be marketed this way.
Next, to make it more palatable (called “bliss point” in the food industry) thickeners need to be added back in so it feels like the original food, in your mouth. That’s why it contains tapioca flour, guar gum and citrus fiber.
Does your head hurt yet?
And finally, “natural flavors.” Do you see on the front packaging where is shows “Toasted Coconut Vanilla Flavored?”
Natural flavors are substances derived from natural sources, such as plants, animals, or microorganisms. They are not intended to be consumed as is, but to provide and/or modify taste to food, without contributing any nutritional value.
Natural flavors can be extracted, distilled, fermented, or otherwise processed from natural materials, such as fruits, herbs, spices, meat, dairy, or yeast. Regulatory oversight of the processes to extract these natural flavors is virtually non-existent.
Back to allulose – why has this been added? Because during the ultra-filtration process, naturally occurring enzymes were removed. These enzymes are an essential component for our gut biome that help break down and digest the nutrients normally found in whole, real, dairy products. Adding a probiotic sugar is an attempt to restore digestibility.
Whew! In summation. This is not food!
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