Beware food companies' misleading health claims

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Sept. 24, 2004, 11:27PM

Beware food companies' misleading health claims

By JANE E. BRODY

New York Times News Service

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/features/2811542

 

You may think that a genuine interest in consumer health prompts food

companies to market products that claim to reduce the risk of heart

disease or cancer or help people lose weight. Think again.

Many food companies are interested in one thing — the most efficient

route to extra sales. The concerns and interests of consumers are

fickle, and food companies are quick to cash in on them. In recent

years, trends have shifted from low salt to high fiber to fat free and

now to low in carbohydrates, high in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty

acids, and free of trans fats. Food companies have introduced new,

reformulated or repositioned products to satisfy every new vogue in

nutrition, regardless of how well or poorly grounded they may be in science.

 

But in what has become a near free-for-all marketplace for health claims

on food products, consumers often are convinced that the more they eat

of these products, the healthier, or thinner, they are likely to be.

 

Once more, think again. Congress has made it extremely difficult for the

Food and Drug Administration to closely regulate health-related claims

for foods and supplements, and the agency is struggling to catch up with

the flood of recent claims for low-carb products. Meanwhile, health

claims and endorsements from organizations such as the American Heart

Association and the American Diabetes Association often appear on

products that nutrition specialists consider anything but healthful.

 

Seductive message

Dr. Marion Nestle, former head of nutrition and now professor of public

health at New York University, calls such claims " calorie distracters "

because they carry a subtle but highly seductive message that it is OK

to eat unlimited amounts because the food is supposedly good for you.

 

These days, consumers can find many snacks advertised as low or lower in

carbohydrates or as containing no trans fats, the heart-damaging

substances formed when vegetable oils are hydrogenated. Hundreds of

products carry the American Heart Association Food Certification Program

heart check mark. To participate in the association's program, these

products must meet the nutritional requirements established by the heart

association, which parallel those set by the FDA and the Department of

Agriculture for a product to make a coronary heart disease health claim.

 

But the criteria do not include low sugar content because there is not

sufficient scientific evidence at this time that sugar is a risk factor

for heart disease.

 

Thus, the heart association has endorsed General Mills' Cocoa Puffs

cereal, a cup of which contains 120 calories, 14 grams of sugar and no

fiber, and the company's Cookie Crisp cereal, with 120 calories and 13

grams of sugar per cup. Both products derive more than 40 percent of

their calories from sugar — hardly a nourishing start to the day, even

if they are low in fat.

 

Likewise, Post's Frosted Shredded Wheat, with 180 calories and 12 grams

of sugar per cup, promotes itself as " A proud sponsor of the American

Diabetes Association, " a surprising bedfellow for a sweetened cereal,

even one made from whole grain. The diabetes association has now changed

its policy and will no longer automatically permit such statements from

companies that contribute to it, a spokesman said.

 

The problem with such questionable health claims, Nestle said, is that

they give people permission " to eat as much of them as they want. "

 

Still junk food

" Yes, it's great to get the trans fats out of chips and pretzels, " she

said, " but these foods still have calories and they're still junk food. "

 

If junk foods were a small fraction of what Americans consume, this

would be of little concern to professionals who see their role as

protectors of the public's health. But they're not.

 

The latest analysis of foods Americans eat, based on 24-hour consumption

reports from 4,760 adult participants in the National Health and

Nutrition Examination Survey, revealed that at least 30 percent of total

calories come from sugary and salty snacks and drinks: sweets, desserts,

soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, salty snacks and fruit-flavored drinks.

 

The researcher who did the analysis, Dr. Gladys Block, a professor of

epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of

California, Berkeley, said of her findings: " What is really alarming is

the major contribution of 'empty calories' in the American diet. We know

people are eating a lot of junk food, but to have almost one-third of

Americans' calories coming from those categories is a shocker. "

 

Low-carb traps

The junk food marketing prize goes to so-called low-carb products, " an

astonishing 930 " of which " have been introduced to U.S. markets in the

last five years, " according to the June issue of Consumer Reports.

 

Food companies have produced snacks and sweets containing small amounts

of so-called " net carbs " by replacing some of the refined flour and

caloric sweeteners in the traditional products with dietary fiber,

starches resistant to digestive enzymes and sugar alcohols that, it is

believed, pass unabsorbed through the human digestive tract.

 

As Consumer Reports points out, if you follow the Atkins diet but fail

to pay attention to calories, you could easily land on a fat farm or

seriously malnourished.

 

Adding up calories

Staying within the prescribed carb limit, the consumer organization

showed that in the course of one day you could consume a 12-ounce

Michelob Ultra beer, two 1-ounce bags of Atkins Crunchers chips, one cup

of Atkins Endulge vanilla ice cream, two Carborite chocolate chip

cookies, one-eighth of an Entenmann's Carb-Counting cake and 10 pieces

of Russell Stover Low Carb Pecan Delight chocolates — for a grand total

of 1,440 calories. And you would still not have eaten any foods that

supplied your body with the nutrients required for good health.