[Newsbot]

Title: Ottawa disbands salt task force, industry licks lips in anticipation
Category: Health
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2011-02-05 16:17:32
Canadian

[Arctic_Menace]

*facepalm*

[DrCaleb]

Crap like this is always announced on weekends. Assholes.

[Canadian_Mind]

livefreeordi livefreeordi:

Good another waste of taxpayer money put out to pasture.

If you haven't heard by now ...TOO MUCH SALT IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH!.

Look at labels and make your own choices about what you eat. Goodbye nanny
state from my pocket.

+1

If you don't want too much salt, sugar, etc in your diet, you have the option of opting out. What fresh fruit, fresh grains, fresh meats, and fresh vegetable products have too much of anything for you when bought fresh off the shelf and consumed according to the recommendations in the food guide? Not a whole lot.

[Thanos]

Psssst, don't reward the tinhatters with rep points, it just encourages them to come back.......

[DrCaleb]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

+1

If you don't want too much salt, sugar, etc in your diet, you have the option of opting out. What fresh fruit, fresh grains, fresh meats, and fresh vegetable products have too much of anything for you when bought fresh off the shelf and consumed according to the recommendations in the food guide? Not a whole lot.

Quite so, but most people have no concept of how much salt is in any given product. Nor do they know how much is recommended. The food guide says 2500mg is the maximum allowable, the food industry touts this as the recommended amount. The actual recommended amount is 1300mg.

A nice plate of Sushi sound healthy? But two teaspoons of Soy sauce will give you that 1300mg, right off the bat. And there is no label in sight. And that's the way food industry wants it.

[romanP]

Nutrition labels also play games with math so that if you want to understand them and compare them, you need a calculator and some conversion formulas. Not only that, labels try to fool you as well, saying things like "90% Less Fat!" when the measure they use to come up with that figure is a dishonest way of representing what they are trying to sell.

[Canadian_Mind]

You wouldn't have that issue if you avoided canned or pre-packaged products.

And frankly, busting a calculator and doing the math isn't that hard to do. Health nazi's, diabetics, etc. do it all the time. and if you don't want to do all that work, there are guides available online that say what to and what not to eat when you want to avoid an overabundance of a certain vitamin, mineral, etc.

[DrCaleb]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

You wouldn't have that issue if you avoided canned or pre-packaged products.

And frankly, busting a calculator and doing the math isn't that hard to do. Health nazi's, diabetics, etc. do it all the time. and if you don't want to do all that work, there are guides available online that say what to and what not to eat when you want to avoid an overabundance of a certain vitamin, mineral, etc.

I am diabetic, and it's not as easy as you make it out to be. Avoiding 'pre-packaged' food is an excellent way to maintain control of your diet, but it gets boring after a while. Seasonal foods make choices difficult. Ever try to get fresh beans or similar foods in winter in Canada? They go bad usually before you can use them. So diners go something like - seasoned chicken breast and steamed broccoli. For a week straight. Sometimes you substitute frozen fish for the chicken - another pre-packed product.

So you choose frozen veggies, but many are rinsed and packaged with something other than 'water'. How about making your own pasta? Ever get home from work at 5:30 and throw together home made pasta noodles? Did you eat them before midnight? Ever try to get frozen fruits that don't cost an arm and a leg? Go to the grocery store and price frozen peaches compared to frozen mixed fruit, there is a large price difference.

Root veggies are about all you get in winter. And not all pre-packaged are bad. Like Roman says, all you have to do is pay attention to labels and you can make some good decisions.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

romanP romanP:

Nutrition labels also play games with math so that if you want to understand them and compare them, you need a calculator and some conversion formulas. Not only that, labels try to fool you as well, saying things like "90% Less Fat!" when the measure they use to come up with that figure is a dishonest way of representing what they are trying to sell.

General Foods got pinched about the amount of sugar in many of their cereals. So, to ease concerns, they merely altered the label to reflect the "new" sugar content. When they got pinched for that little infraction, they played around some more until they could legally claim that they met the maximum allowable sugar content per serving of cereal. They didn't adjust the sugar content, they just changed the serving size to roughly half a bowl of cereal.
And that's how a LOT of companies get away with misrepresenting salt and sugar content, they merely adjust the recommended serving size.

[romanP]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

You wouldn't have that issue if you avoided canned or pre-packaged products.

I agree completely. I try to buy as little packaged food as possible, but a lot of people don't. Those people are fooled into thinking they're eating healthier because the label says so. I can't count how many people I know who think they're doing themselves a favour by drinking "diet" cola because it doesn't have sugar.. nevermind that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar.

$1:

And frankly, busting a calculator and doing the math isn't that hard to do. Health nazi's, diabetics, etc. do it all the time. and if you don't want to do all that work, there are guides available online that say what to and what not to eat when you want to avoid an overabundance of a certain vitamin, mineral, etc.

The people who need to be more aware of the fact that nutrition labels play these games are the same people who are least likely to bring a calculator to the grocery store.

[Canadian_Mind]

romanP romanP:

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

You wouldn't have that issue if you avoided canned or pre-packaged products.

I agree completely. I try to buy as little packaged food as possible, but a lot of people don't. Those people are fooled into thinking they're eating healthier because the label says so. I can't count how many people I know who think they're doing themselves a favour by drinking "diet" cola because it doesn't have sugar.. nevermind that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar.

$1:

And frankly, busting a calculator and doing the math isn't that hard to do. Health nazi's, diabetics, etc. do it all the time. and if you don't want to do all that work, there are guides available online that say what to and what not to eat when you want to avoid an overabundance of a certain vitamin, mineral, etc.

The people who need to be more aware of the fact that nutrition labels play these games are the same people who are least likely to bring a calculator to the grocery store.

lol, Coke Zero, even better than Diet Coke.

And it is still their responsibility, and thus their problem if they don't care enough to look out for their own well being.

[redhatmamma]

Why should the government have to take care of our salt intake, what happened to personal responsibility and thinking for ourselves. We don't need a committee to tell us how much to eat or drink.

[fifeboy]

Steven Harper's new O Canada.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for industry.

[fifeboy]

redhatmamma redhatmamma:

Why should the government have to take care of our salt intake, what happened to personal responsibility and thinking for ourselves. We don't need a committee to tell us how much to eat or drink.

I agree. Let's get rid of: traffic laws, airline safety rules, food safety laws (opps, sorry) and all the other standards set by gov. regs.