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Old 08-03-2009, 02:12 PM   #1  
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Default Misleading labeling and confused

So I think I have the basics down but i still have so much trouble with labels. For instance, I though dried fruit was good for you and it was even labeled as "Fit & Active" but then I read that it has 25g of sugar. So do raisins. I understand that this is natural sugars vs. refined but still.

Also, there is a lot of added sugars in the low fat foods and foods with "Fit or healthy" labels. I bought these yummy yogurt and strawberry rice cakes but the third ingredient listed is "sugar".

I am a craver and it took me over a year to 2 years to completely banish my cravings and I am really very sensitive to fats, salt and sugar. I've made great strides in my diet but I'm still running into a snack attack problem mid morning. Which leads me to my other problem.

I highly doubt its my breakfast, I'm having a serving of Steel Cut Oats oatmeal (no sugar) with a half of container of Motts organic applesauce, 1/8 cup of chopped walnuts and one serving of honey and a 4oz glass of prune juice. By breakfast I'm on my second bottle of water. So it cannot be that I'm not eating enough cals or fiber. I also eat within the recommended 60 mins after I wake up.

Yet by 10:30-11 one normal portioned snack doesn't cut it, I'm starving by then. Its the only time of the day I'm having a problem. My biggest craving is dairy, I want swiss cheese or any other kind of sliced cheese, its absurd. If I try to substitute it with low fat cottage cheese or yogurt I still want that cheese.

Any input would be wonderful.

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Old 08-03-2009, 02:21 PM   #2  
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Maybe try protein in the morning and see if it keeps you fuller longer? It may take some experimenting to see what is going to work for you... There are also many lower-fat cheese options that you can try -- if that's what you're craving.

And dried fruit is a sneaky one! Fresh fruit has so much volume that it's hard to get crazy calories in because you'll just get too full! But when you dry it you really condense the calories. I can't eat five apples at once, but I could EASILY snack on and consume the equivalent of five apples in dried apple slices. Same with grapes/raisins.

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Old 08-03-2009, 02:21 PM   #3  
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The "low fat" and "non fat" craze did a lot to add to people's waistlines since sugar replaced fat in most of those products. Its so important to look at protein, fiber, and especially total calories on the labels, not just the fat content.

Maybe you should try other foods for breakfast to see what will hold you over till lunch? For me, eating something with protein (even a bit of turkey on a piece of wheat bread or some peanut butter on an english muffin) does wonders for holding off the appetite till lunch.
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Old 08-03-2009, 02:30 PM   #4  
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Your breakfast has plenty of fiber and carb, but no protein. I can't make it through my morning without protein! Maybe you could replace something (like the honey) with some kind of protein...a hardboiled egg, a few slices of turkey, or any other protein you like...even a scoop of protein powder in your oatmeal would work.

As for mislabeling, I never trust ANY sort of food labeling on the front of the package. I consider them advertising...nothing more. To determine if a food is healthy, I look at the nutrition facts and the ingredients. Many of those labels (fit and healthy, multi-grain, any number of others) really have no enforceable meaning...they're just ad slogans. The nutrition facts and ingredients panels are much more carefully regulated (and therefore more reliable).
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Old 08-03-2009, 02:36 PM   #5  
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Originally Posted by mandalinn82 View Post
Your breakfast has plenty of fiber and carb, but no protein. I can't make it through my morning without protein! Maybe you could replace something (like the honey) with some kind of protein...a hardboiled egg, a few slices of turkey, or any other protein you like...even a scoop of protein powder in your oatmeal would work.

As for mislabeling, I never trust ANY sort of food labeling on the front of the package. I consider them advertising...nothing more. To determine if a food is healthy, I look at the nutrition facts and the ingredients. Many of those labels (fit and healthy, multi-grain, any number of others) really have no enforceable meaning...they're just ad slogans. The nutrition facts and ingredients panels are much more carefully regulated (and therefore more reliable).
Wow! That is a GREAT idea and I am stealing it. Thanks
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Old 08-03-2009, 02:42 PM   #6  
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Not only is advertising a big issue (truth in advertising seems to be an oxymoron), there are also a lot of different ideas about what a healthy diet (or fitness) really means. You can't take anything for granted, and have to read the labels and see how the foods fit into your own definitions.

There are a lot of foods that most people would consider healthy, that I find I have to limit or avoid because they tend to increase my appetite. I can't do high carb breakfasts (even good carbs) without feeling absolutely starved a few hours later. Oatmeal and very high fiber foods are better, but I do best if at least half my calories are coming from protein and fat.

Dried fruits, I have to treat as candy, because that's how my body and taste buds react to them. I buy dried fruit from bulk bins, but only buy about 1/2 cup of two or three fruits for the month. Right now I have about 1/8 cup of craisins and a 1/3 cup of golden raisins. They have to last me until payday in two weeks. I've been sprinkling them in my yogurt, or in my cereal, but I ration them out about a tablespoon at a time.

Last edited by kaplods; 08-03-2009 at 02:44 PM.
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Old 08-03-2009, 03:24 PM   #7  
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Yes, I thought about protein but I guess mistakenly thought oat meal and the walnuts was a good source of protein. I used to have one egg with this meal and got away from it. I'm going to try and add that egg back and see. Thanks so much for all the valuable input!

Last edited by Jensaloser; 08-03-2009 at 03:26 PM. Reason: add info
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Old 08-04-2009, 10:38 AM   #8  
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Honey is sugar! Protein and fiber keep you full.
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Old 08-04-2009, 10:56 AM   #9  
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And what is wrong with cheese as a snack ? I regularly have a slice of Sargento Reduced Fat Swiss Cheese . 60 calories and 7 grams of protein.
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Old 08-04-2009, 02:07 PM   #10  
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I also snack on cheese, even full fat cheeses. Cheese used to be a trigger food for me - but only because I was pairing it with high carb foods such as crackers or bread. Now I carefully measure out my half to two ounce portion, and eat it very slowly on a salad or with a non-sugary fruit, raw vegetables, or alone.

It's amazing how big an ounce is if you're not pairing it with a very high carb partner. For fatty and/or super strong cheeses (which I really love), especially the blue and other moldy cheeses (absolutely my favorite), I only use about half an ounce and either sprinkle it on a salad or eat it with a toothpick one crumble at a time.

Last night I cut an ounce of fancy cheese (Double Gloucester seasoned with onion and chive) and put it on a small plate with a little dab of maple mustard (a high sugar condiment, so I used less than a quarter tsp). I nibbled at it, and made it last, like it was gold (which is really was because I spent nearly $5 for a quarter lb - it was a "souveneir" from our IL trip. There's a little specialty shop in Bloomington called World Gourmet, it's the only place we'll buy cheese outside WI.

I never ate much cheese before moving to WI. There's a wonderful cheese factory in Rudolph, WI where you can watch them make the cheesecurds (through a glass wall in the shop), and they have so many wonderful varieties of cheeses that they make and they also trade with other cheesemakers inside and outside the US. It's amazing, because the local cheeses are almost never more than $5 per pound, and the imports average around $10 (about half the price we paid, even for Kraft and other grocery brands of cheese in IL).
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Old 08-04-2009, 02:08 PM   #11  
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Honey is sugar! Protein and fiber keep you full.
well actually its naturally occurring sugar, or unrefined non-processed. We do have to differentiate in order to be eating healthy. Honey has been proven to have antibacterial properties for ppl like me with severe sinus problems and allergies. It also is a heat generator e.i. linked to speeding up metabolic rate and giving energy boost.

and to be blunt, no honey no oatmeal. Plain, non-sugar oatmeal makes me want to vomit. So having the one serving on top of the healthy oatmeal is def a great alternative to many other options.

anyway, i did add the egg back into my diet this morning and it worked like a charm. funny, i think one morning i ran out of eggs and just forgot to buy more and next thing you know I've been missing an egg from my breakfast each day for the last month, that's about when the mid-morning snack attack started! lol Eureeka!
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Old 08-04-2009, 02:10 PM   #12  
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Protein = magic fullness nutrient! Glad it worked!
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Old 08-04-2009, 02:37 PM   #13  
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well actually its naturally occurring sugar, or unrefined non-processed. We do have to differentiate in order to be eating healthy.
I would disagree with this to a large degree. Natural sugars may be marginally better than processed sugar, but they generally still have similar effects in the body, perhaps more so for people with blood sugar issues.

Whether I've eaten cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, corn syrup, maple syrup, molasses, honey, dried fruits, or even some high sugar fruits, or starches which break down into sugars; they tend to have a very similar effect on my blood sugar and appetite. The fiber and water content in fruits and vegetables do seem to mitigate the hunger/appetite effects somewhat, but the greatest effect seems to be the carbohydrate content.

So while "natural sugar" sources come with more nutrients than processed white and brown sugars, the impact on blood sugar/hunger/appetite can be more similar than not.

High sugar foods are very rare in the natural world. The competition and effort required to harvest them need to be considered. In the natural world, wild fruits have a much lower sugar content than modern cultivated fruits (virtually every fruit that humans eat is drastically different than it's wild counterpart). Also, in the wild fruits are rarely ever eaten at peak ripeness (sugar content), because there's so much competition for these fruits. Rather, critters and humans had to eat them under-ripe to eat them at all, because in the wild it's "first come, first serve," and "you snooze, you lose."

Honey, likewise is very difficult (and usually painful) to collect in the wild, so critters and early humans who harvested it, did so very, very, very rarely. It was an extremely unusual treat, not an everyday diet staple (most people probably never tasted it, or had fewer than a couple tablespoons per year).

It's very difficult to simulate a "natural" human diet. Agriculture is a fairly recent human invention, only about 10,000 years old (an eyeblink in terms of evolution), but in those 10,000 years we've accelerated and twisted the evolutionary development in the plants and animals we raise, often until they barely resemble their natural counterparts.


I'm not telling you not to include honey or dried fruit into your diet. Nor am I saying that emulating a paleolithic or neolithic is necessary or practical for most people. However, the more I read about the evolution of the human diet, the more it seems to be that even "natural" sugars were quite limited for the majority of human history. Only in the last hundred years or so, have very sweet foods (natural or otherwise) become abundent and affordable to all economic stratas of society.

Last edited by kaplods; 08-04-2009 at 02:39 PM.
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Old 08-04-2009, 02:45 PM   #14  
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honestly why not just buy whole foods and skip the labeling disaster? much easier to understand when you avoid the problem
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Old 08-04-2009, 02:51 PM   #15  
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This kind of sneaky "make believe" labelling is my pet hate.

If it`s high in sugar it`ll boast to be low in fat and vice versa. And what does "fit and active" really mean, in terms of a food? Such a label is designed to sell a dream ("If you eat this you will be fit and active") but can a food really achieve that?
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